LongHouse Reserve’s Larsen Salon Celebrated The Bicentennial Of American Landscape Painter Frederic Church

LongHouse Reserve held a Larsen Salon celebrating the bicentennial of American landscape painter Frederic Church. Victoria Johnson, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, discussed her new biography, “Glorious Country.” The event was hosted by LongHouse Board Member Michael Jones at his offices of Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York City.

Church was a 19th-century American artist whose travels from the Arctic to the Middle East inspired paintings that introduced audiences to distant parts of the world. “I climbed Andean volcanoes in his footsteps, and his stamina and courage amazed me as I traveled under far more comfortable conditions than those he endured,” said Victoria Johnson, professor at Hunter College and author of American Eden. “I found myself in a lightning storm, and we were so high that the lightning was crackling sideways around us. This terrifying experience, fortunately, was useful for my book, because it taught me something important about Church. One can feel most physically and spiritually alive when faced with nature’s titanic scale and power. And that is what Church put into his paintings. The impulses that drove Church to create them, including his three-dimensional masterpiece, Olana, represent the very best of our complicated history as a nation.” Johnson spent six years researching Church’s life, retracing his journeys for her new biography.

“Olana, his home on the Hudson, and Jack Lenor Larsen’s LongHouse in East Hampton, while they originate roughly 100 years apart, share a DNA,” added Esperanza Leon, Director of Education and Community Engagement at LongHouse, “Both are total works of art created by American creative visionaries who have integrated art, architecture, landscape, and global cultures into their personal living spaces.”

The Larsen Salon Series continues the vision of LongHouse Founder Jack Lenor Larsen to make art accessible and encourage public engagement with art, architecture, and design. Jack’s partner and LongHouse Board Member Peter Olsen welcomed guests to the Salon. The entire LongHouse family looks forward to celebrating Jack’s 100th birthday in 2027.

For more information, visit longhouse.org.