day trip
Olana, Thomas Cole House, and the Hudson River Skywalk By Jamie Larson
View from the porch of the Thomas Cole House.
Hudson Valley History, Connected by Art, a Scenic Skywalk, and Towns Between The Olana State Historic Site, located just outside Hudson, New York, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, across the Hudson River in Catskill, live in perpetual conversation with each other. The best way to engage in the dialogue between Olana, the home of Hudson River School of painting master Frederic Church, and that of Church’s teacher and mentor Thomas Cole, is to visit them both. That’s easy enough to do, given the sites are conveniently—and intentionally—connected by the scenic Hudson River Skywalk that spans the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Church and Cole are the most enduring names associated with the Hudson River School of painting, which proliferated
through the 1800s. Their landscape paintings of the valley, as well as the many other locations they traveled to around the globe, captivated audiences at the time by infusing hyper-realistic depictions of the natural world with emotion and meaning. Cole’s home, where he lived from 1833 to1848, and contemporary studio form a handsome and engaging repository for his paintings and ephemera. Across the river, through the second half of the 19th century, his famous pupil Church built himself a grand mansion—pulling architectural inspiration from his travels to the Middle East. The house and grounds at Olana are certainly more attention-grabbing but the Cole House has its own understated appeal. To experience the homes, studios, and landscapes of these two sites is to tangibly enter an ongoing discussion about the relationship between historic and contemporary art, environmental preservation, and numerous other topics of consequence. A nice long excursion also provides the opportunity to hike trails with gob-smacking views and sample farm-fresh offerings at some of the Hudson Valley’s best restaurants on either shore. OutAndAboutBerkshireEdge.com
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