Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church was the only pupil of Thomas Cole and became the best-known painter of the Hudson River School. He travelled to South America, the Arctic seas and the Middle East and painted vast, minutely detailed landscapes such as Niagara and The Heart of the Andes, which were shown on their own to paying crowds. His pictures combined scientific observation with a sense of wonder at the natural world. He designed his Persian-style house, Olana, above the Hudson River, which is now a museum.