The century-and-a-half home of a Hudson Valley painter is the setting for a contemporary mystery novel.
by Rich Watson
In the mid-nineteenth century, a group of landscape artists based in the Hudson Valley formed a movement that brought the region, and other parts of America, to life in a variety of paintings.
One of them, Frederick Edwin Church, designed and lived in a mansion, Olana, that grew to personify the Hudson River School. Today it’s a museum that draws visitors from around the region and beyond.
In 2013, it was the subject of a mystery novel that drew upon the place’s history, called Death at Olana.
The Hudson River School was the first concerted effort by American artists to break away from the influence of European art and establish a self-identity.
Thomas Cole spearheaded the movement through his groundbreaking paintings of the Catskills. European romanticism was an early influence.
Later, after the Civil War, the concept of “manifest destiny”—the notion that westward expansion of the country was America’s fate—also was a factor. HRS paintings expressed a feeling that the landscapes they depicted represented opportunity, adventure, and hope.
Frederic Edwin Church was a student of Cole’s at age eighteen, in the town of Catskill. Two years after Cole’s death in 1848, Church moved to New York, but he traveled across New England, other parts east of the Mississippi and even South America to paint and sketch. His 1859 work The Heart of the Andes sold for $10,000, a record for a living American artist at the time.
In the 1860s, Church married, started a family, bought a farm in the town of Hudson and continued his travels.
Olana and Hudson
Church and his wife Isabel nicknamed the farm, which he bought in 1860, “Cosy Cottage.” He made additions—gardens, orchards, a studio—and bought some woodland atop a hill in 1867.
With the help of notable architect Calvert Vaux, Church designed a house for the site in an Orientalist architectural style. It was built from 1870-72. The name “Olana” comes from a treasure house in ancient Greater Persia (what is now Armenia).
Church continued revising Olana until his death in 1900. It remained in the family until 1966, when New York State purchased the property and opened it to the public.
The nearby city of Hudson was chartered in 1785 after Indians and Dutch colonists settled in the area. During the early twentieth century, it was known for its gambling and prostitution. Today it’s a popular destination spot for visitors from New York City. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Ashbery lived in Hudson.
A decade ago, Olana was reimagined in a new novel.
Glenda Ruby’s novel Death at Olana
Marketing executive turned mystery novelist Glenda Ruby has lived near Olana for over thirty years. Death at Olana was her first novel.
In this 2013 interview, she discussed what prompted her to pursue writing:
I’ve always written fiction… short stories or casuals, mostly. Also poetry, back in the days when men were men and tables were round. But it’s the classic mysteries of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, P. D. James and Ruth Randell that have captured my imagination since childhood…. The rich history of our Valley is fascinating. And there is always more to know. We who live here are thrilled to learn about the area because we love it so.
The murder in Olana occurs during the unveiling of a previously undiscovered painting by Church at a party, with three hundred guests. The Olana director is the victim. The Hudson sheriff recruits art and antiques expert Lindsay Brooks to help uncover the culprit. The Church painting is key.
Olana has an average rating of 4 1/2 stars out of five on Amazon and 3.51 stars on Goodreads. In 2014 Ruby did a signing at Olana.
She also has a mystery novel set at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson.
@byrichwatson
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Have you been to Olana or read Death at Olana?
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