Asher Brown Durand: 6 works

'About 1835 Durand took up painting, and soon became a leader of the Hudson River School. In 1840 he toured Europe with the artists Casilear, who was his student, Kensett, and Rossiter.'

'The acknowledged dean of American landscape painters following the death of Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand exemplified the ideal of naturalism for the second generation of American Hudson River School painters. Trained first as a watchmaker, silversmith, and engraver before turning to landscape painting, Durand began making seasonal trips to the hills along the Hudson River to sketch directly from near at hand natural motifs.'

'Durand was an important teacher whose students went on to paint all across the country, from the Hudson River Valley and Louisiana's swamplands to the American West. Durand implored American artists to "go first to nature," to learn all of the most important principles of fine art, arguing that the humblest rock could teach painters more than the finest art school.'

'Durand enjoyed virtually undisputed preeminence in American art during mid-century and became an important mentor for the generation of American landscapists who followed in the path blazed by Thomas Cole, N.A. (1801-1848) from 1825 until his early death. Durand's "Landscape," painted just two years after Cole's death, depicts two artists resting amid a scene that strongly suggests an idealized version of the landscape of the upper Hudson looking south to the Catskill Mountains.'

'Working in New York City, he became a close colleague of Cole, and served as president of the National Academy of Design. He regularly ventured into remote areas of the Catskill, Adirondack, and White Mountains to make sketches, which he used in the landscapes composed in his studio during the winter.'

'Like other artists of this group, Durand devoted his creative pursuits to the direct study of nature, producing numerous drawings and paintings that captured the beauty of the natural environment in the Northeastern United States.'