National Academy Museum Pairs Hudson River School Collections

NEW YORK CITY

: The National Academy Museum is presenting two collections of Nineteenth Century American landscape paintings, never before seen in New York City, "Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church" and "For Spacious Skies: Hudson River School Paintings from the Henry and Sharon Martin Collection." This pairing will be on view from February 9 to April 30.

Organized by The Olana Partnership and Olana State Historic Site, the Church exhibition features 18 paintings that Church prized enough to keep in his personal collection, ranging from the powerful and exotic "El Khasne, Petra," 1874, to his lyric panorama of Niagara, "Horseshow Falls," 1856-57. This is the first time these paintings have ever traveled as a group from Olana, the artist's historic home in Hudson, N.Y., and will provide viewers the opportunity to understand why Church has been called the most popular American landscape painter of the mid Nineteenth Century. The works in this exhibition are intimately bound to Olana - some representing the majestic view along the Hudson river from its hilltop vantage.

Born in 1826 in Hartford, Conn., Church studied for several years with Thomas Cole, widely regarded as the first exponent of Hudson River School painting. Church moved to New York in 1849 and began his independent career, quickly establishing a reputation as Cole's immediate successor after the latter's untimely death. Within a year, Church became the youngest artist elected to membership in the National Academy of Design, now the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts. He enjoyed a lifelong association with the Hudson River Valley, where he painted and made his home until his death in 1900, but also traveled widely around the world, opening Americans' eyes to broader horizons with his art.

The exhibition, curated by Kevin Avery, associate curator in the department of American paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is accompanied by a full-color catalog celebrating the artist's accomplishments and setting the collection in the context of his distinguished career.

"For Spacious Skies: Hudson River School paintings from the Henry and Sharon Martin Collection," features works by such well-known artists as Cole, Asher B. Durand, Jasper Cropsey, Church, Sanford Robinson Gifford, John Frederick Kensett and Martin Johnson Heade.

The collection focuses on the luminist phase of the Hudson River School, practiced principally during the 1850s-70s, at which time landscape painters created panoramic views that are recognized for their manipulation of natural light, rich atmospheres and sweeping vistas. The 18 paintings in this exhibition eloquently capture the landscape's shifting seasonal light and changing climatic conditions with honesty and vitality. The Martin collection largely consists of intimate, finished sketches that were intended for display in private homes such as the National Academy's historic Huntington Mansion. The exhibition therefore provides visitors the opportunity to appreciate the works in a setting consistent with the artists' intentions.

The Martins began collecting fine art 25 years ago, eventually developing an emphasis on smaller American landscapes painted directly from nature. These intimate Hudson River School paintings offer "a special freshness of vision, energy of execution and immediacy of effect," writes John Wilmerding, a nationally known scholar of American painting, in his introduction to the catalog. The Martins' collection provides a complement to the in-depth look at the works of Church in the "Treasures from the Olana" exhibition form the same era.

The exhibition, organized by the New Britain Museum of American Art, is curated by Kevin Sharp, director of visual arts at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts in Mt Vernon, Ill., and author of the exhibition catalog.

The National Academy is at 1083 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. For information, www.nationalacademy.org or 212-369-4880.