Matisse and Chagall in Rockefeller Country

This official app created by Historic Hudson Valley allows users to experience the incredible stained glass windows at the Union Church of Pocantico Hills. For more information on Historic Hudson Valley, visit: www.hudsonvalley.org.

In 1954, one of the art world’s great masters lay dead. The fate of his final work, a stained-glass window destined for installation in a small stone church in New York’s countryside, was unknown to the Rockefeller sons who commissioned it as a bold memorial to their beloved mother. Henri Matisse, in his 80s and ailing, initially declined the commission. Museum of Modern Art director Alfred Barr convinced him to accept…but could he complete it? Later, after the death of Abby’s husband, the great philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the sons sought another stained glass memorial, this time from Marc Chagall. In the heart of New York's Hudson Valley, the Union Church of Pocantico Hills is home to these works of art and eight other stained glass windows by Chagall. See these amazing windows and learn the incredible story that ties together art and history, life and death, two of the greatest artists of our time... and the iconic American family that made it all possible.