Frederic Edwin Church

No, this is not the name of a church I have applied to as a pastor. He was a famous 19th century painter, from the Hudson River School of American painting.

Until two weeks ago, I knew nothing about him. Until I began listening to a song by Marc Cohn called Olana. I initially had no idea what the song was about, but the tune was catchy, and the lyrics intrigued me. The second verse is this:

From the Andes to Niagara
To where we stand today
I drew the great creations of my master
'Til the oil and the canvas
Lord I threw them all away
And traded them for stone and brick and plaster

Obviously, whoever this is about is/was a painter. But why the references to the Andes and Niagara? Those two references sounded too disparate for me, so I googled them. Here's what I found.

This is a painting simply called, Niagara, painted in 1857. Beautiful! Notice how the light shines forth from the painting, something art scholars call the "luminous".

"Church's first visit to Niagara Falls was probably in 1848, a few months after Thomas Cole's death. Church made the trip from his home along the Hudson River several times, probably travelling the Erie Canal. He is thought that he visited again in September of 1851 but in 1856 he started work on the painting above. That year Church visited the Falls at all seasons - on March 19-20, on July 7th and again in September and October. The work was finally exhibited in 1857 at Williams, Stevens & Williams. Viewers were charged twenty five cents to see the painting. The gallery purchased the painting for $2,500 plus $2,000 for copyright to make chromolithographs." (From this site)

In 1859, he painted this picture, call "The Heart of the Andes". This painting caused quite a stir when it was first shown, as it was huge: over five feet tall, and almost ten feet wide.

As I searched, I found another picture of Church's that I really like, called "Twilight in the Wilderness." Having seen this sort of scene growing up on Minnesota prarie, it brings to me a feeling of nostalgia, of longing, something not easily put into words.

From wikipedia: In 1860 Church bought a farm in Hudson, New York and married Isabel Carnes. Both Church's first son and daughter died in March, 1863 of diphtheria, but he and his wife started a new family with the birth of Frederic junior in 1865.

When he and his wife had a family of four children, they began to travel together. In 1867 they visited Europe and the Middle East, allowing Church to return to painting larger works.

Before leaving on that trip, Church purchased the eighteen acres (73,000 m²) on the hilltop above his Hudson farm -- land he had long wanted because of its magnificent views of the Hudson River and the Catskills. In 1870 he began the construction of "Olana" on that site. This highly personal and eclectic castle incorporated many of the design ideas that he had acquired in the Middle East. Olana, now owned by the nonprofit Olana Partnership and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a New York State historic site open to the public. While Church continued to paint monumental landscapes at Olana, he also enjoyed painting small, spontaneous sketches of clouds and sunsets from his hilltop home.

Olana is now a state park. There is also an organization for the preservation of Olana.

This is wonderful. A new (to me) song, makes me curious about it's message. A little internet search, and we are there.

I am intrigued by a man who was so good at painting, and yet gave it up to work on a farm. What would cause a man to do such a thing? Perhaps it is the strong human longing for a home, a place to belong, to feel safe and secure.