Every Landscape Tells a Story: Introducing Frederic Church's Olana - with Annik LaFarge In-Person
Annik LaFarge will give an illustrated talk at the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon to introduce Olana, the artist-created landscape in the Hudson Valley that Frederic Church considered his
greatest work of art.
Like her earlier book, which unpacks the history of the High Line park in New York City, Composing Olana is a work of cultural excavation, revealing the history of everything we see,
and much that we don’t see, in the greater landscape. Using dozens of historic and contemporary photos and maps, LaFarge ranges in her talk from the Ice Age geology that created this landscape the Hudson River School painters fell in love with, to a little island in view of Church’s studio that was the site of a dramatic, and final, battle between two longtime rival nations, the Mohicans and the Mohawks.
Along the way we learn about this innovative artist/explorer/placemaker, a kind of Indiana Jones figure whose work and influence have had a fresh look in 2026, the year marking the 200th anniversary of Church’s birth. For more about the book, visit the companion website at https://olanabook.com.
- Date:
- Sunday, September 13, 2026
- Time:
- 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- Reading Room
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Adult Program