HUDSON, N.Y. -- Artist Frederic Edwin Church built Olana, his grandiose, Persian-inspired villa, atop a hill on 250 acres in the Hudson Valley so he could be close to the natural beauty that inspired him. When not traveling the world, he could look out the windows to see the lush landscapes of the Hudson River, the Catskill Mountains and trees stretching for miles -- and paint them just as he saw them.

Now, more than a century later, a new gallery at the Olana State Historic Site allows visitors to see those vistas and many of the works of art created from them.

The Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery, on the second floor of the main house, was unveiled in May in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the river that carries his name. The gallery's first exhibit, Glories of the Hudson: Frederic Edwin Church's Views from Olana, continues through October. Taken mainly from Olana's collection, it highlights Church's sketches of the river from his property and includes works never seen by the public.

IMPORTANT ARTIST

Church is often considered one of this country's most important artists and a key figure in the influential Hudson River School, a loose association of painters who worked in a similar style, focusing on landscapes of the Hudson, the Catskills, the Adirondacks and New Hampshire's White Mountains between the 1830s and the 1870s. They were colleagues, friends and supporters who studied together and traveled throughout New York and New England and occasionally Europe and the Middle East.

Most of the sketches on display are done in oil on paper and reflect what co-curators Valerie Balint and Evelyn Trebilcock call Church's ''quintessential views'' of the river, many of which look south. From the window, the views lend the exhibit a somewhat multidimensional quality.

Lilacs abound, and leafy trees -- mainly birch, oak, ash and black cherry -- dot the landscape. The Catskills loom in the distance, past rolling green hills and more trees. Church's efforts to design perfect views remain -- miles of planned roads around the property were carefully laid out so vistas would open up as the roads rose, fell and turned. The property's outbuildings were designed to be screened from sight, so they did not mar the scenes Church worshipped.

Many of the paintings in this exhibit focus on sunsets, including Summer Sunset from Olana, an oil on board that shows the aftermath of a late-day thunderstorm, haziness contrasted by the brilliance of the reds, oranges and yellows of the waning summer sun. A photograph taken in 1898 by Church's son Louis also shows a sunset view, with the sun breaking through the clouds over the mountains.

FIGHT FOR BEAUTY

Maintaining the site's original, unaltered beauty has been the result of years of work by the Olana Partnership, the nonprofit arm of the property. The effort has included vehement opposition to local development, including a proposed cement plant that would have included a 400-foot smoke stack, skyscraper-sized buildings and round-the-clock mining and blasting.

The partnership spent 18 years working to get Olana's overhead electrical wires laid underground. Last year, the last utility pole was removed from the property, making the views seen today at Olana even closer to what Church saw.

Church would not have seen the Rip Van Winkle Bridge -- a suspended deck truss bridge built in 1935 to connect Greene and Columbia counties. A few factories can be spied in the far distance along with a scattering of houses. New-growth trees have been planted deliberately to hide as much industrial development as possible, and a full horticultural restoration is in the works.

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