2026 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hudson River School painter Frederic E. Church (1826–1900). To celebrate the artist’s legacy, the Albany Institute of History & Art presents Your Friend, Frederic E. Church, an exhibition that focuses on the friendship between Church and Albany-based sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer (1817–1904). Palmer was among the leading portrait sculptors of the second half of the nineteenth century. Friends for half a century, Church and Palmer (and their wives) wrote to each other about their art, their children, and their respective farms, and visited each other frequently.
Among the 72 letters from Church to “My dear Palmer” in the Albany Institute’s collection is one dated July 7, 1869, where he writes the now famous words “About an hour this side of Albany is the center of the World – I own it.” This reference was to Olana, the 250-acre living landscape, home, and estate near Hudson, New York, created by Church and his family, which stands today as one of the most well-preserved artistic environments in the United States.
Church owned ten works by Palmer—more than by any other artist. He lived with them at Olana and in his New York City studio. The letters show that the artists encouraged each other and reported to one another about their successes and failures. On January 1, 1863, Palmer wrote to Church about a sculpture he carved in reaction to the Civil War: “I never made sorrow before as it is expressed in this head. It is not grief but sorrow & compassion.” In this letter he mentions the title of the work, Peace in Bondage, for the first time. The sculpture, in the Albany Institute’s collection, and the letter, in Olana’s collection, will be united for the first time in this exhibition.
