Happy City News has a lush new museum date for your fall calendar. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum opens Frederic Church in Jamaica on October 30, 2026, running through February 15, 2027, and it is a rare chance to see one of America’s most beloved landscape painters up close, pencil and paintbox in hand.
The exhibition celebrates the 200th anniversary of Frederic Church’s birth (1826–1900) and draws on a treasure the museum guards with pride: more than 2,000 of the artist’s oil and graphite sketches, the largest collection of Church works in the world. More than 60 of them, rarely exhibited, go on view together.
All of them were made during Church’s five-month journey through Jamaica in 1865. Traveling on foot and by horse, he sketched every day — palm trees swaying on steep hillsides, tree ferns, rainforest valleys, the Blue Mountains near Kingston, and even a bright green lizard caught in a few joyful strokes. The show reveals the expressive, healing power of drawing directly from nature.
Highlights include Palm Trees from June 1865, a radiant study in oil and graphite. Organized by curator Caitlin Condell, the exhibition is at Cooper Hewitt, 2 East 91st Street, and image descriptions and a large-print label booklet make the visit welcoming for everyone.
Photo: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
