Asher Brown Durand (August 21, 1796 – September 17, 1886) was an American engraver and painter of the Hudson River School.

Early life

Durand was born in, and eventually died in,

Maplewood, New Jersey Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's popula ...

(then called Jefferson Village). He was the eighth of eleven children. Durand's father was a watchmaker and a silversmith. Durand was apprenticed to an engraver from 1812 to 1817 and later entered into a partnership with the owner of the company, Charles Cushing Wright (1796–1854), who asked him to manage the company's New York office. He engraved ''Declaration of Independence'' for

John Trumbull John Trumbull (June 6, 1756 – November 10, 1843) was an American painter and military officer best known for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Revolut ...

during 1823, which established Durand's reputation as one of the country's finest engravers. The project took three years and he was paid $3,000. Between 1829 and 1850, he submitted illustrations and engravings for '' The Token and Atlantic Souvenir'' annual gift book, including the title page for the 1829 volume. Contemporary critic

John Neal John Neal (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1 ...

praised Durand's engraving of ''The Wife'' by Samuel F.B. Morse for '' The Atlantic Souvenir'' (1830), which Neal said was better than the original painting. Durand helped organize the New York Drawing Association in 1825, which would become the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

; he would serve the organization as president from 1845 to 1861. There he exhibited 181 engravings and paintings between 1826 and 1860. Asher's engravings on bank notes were used as the portraits for America's first

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

s, the 1847 series. Along with his brother Cyrus he also engraved some of the succeeding 1851 issues. Contemporary art historian William Dunlap dubbed Durand America's first engraver.

Painting career

Durand's main interest changed from engraving to oil painting about 1830 with the encouragement of his patron, Luman Reed. In 1837, he accompanied his friend

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for hi ...

on a sketching expedition to Schroon Lake in the

Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains ( ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York (state), New York which form a circular dome approximately wide and covering about . The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy, which is the hi ...

Mountains, and soon after he began to concentrate on

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

painting. He spent summers sketching in the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School. Durand is remembered particularly for his detailed portrayals of trees, rocks, and foliage. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "Let he artistscrupulously accept whatever aturepresents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth." Brown Gray Durand 1850

Like other Hudson River School artists, Durand also believed that nature was an ineffable manifestation of God. He expressed this sentiment and his general opinions on art in his essay "Letters on Landscape Painting" in ''The Crayon'', a mid-19th century New York art periodical. Wrote Durand, " e true province of

Landscape Art Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coh ...

is the representation of the work of God in the visible creation..." Brooklyn Museum - The First Harvest in the Wilderness - Asher B

Durand is noted for his 1849 painting '' Kindred Spirits'' which shows fellow Hudson River School artist

and poet

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the '' New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poe ...

in a

Mountains

. This was painted as a tribute to Cole upon Cole's death in 1848 and a gift to Bryant. The painting, donated by Bryant's daughter Julia to the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

in 1904, was sold by the library using

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

at an auction in May 2005 to Alice Walton for a purported $35 million (the sale was performed as a sealed, first bid auction, so the actual sales price is not known). At $35 million, however, it would be a record price paid for an American painting at the time. Another of Durand's paintings is ''

Progress Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...

'' (1853), commissioned by a railroad executive. The landscape depicts America's progress, from a state of nature (on the left, where Native Americans look on), towards the right, where there are roads, telegraph wires, a canal, warehouses, railroads, and steamboats. In December 2018, it was purchased by an anonymous donor for an estimated $40 million and given to the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the supp ...

. In 2007, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

exhibited nearly sixty of Durand's works in the first monographic exhibition devoted to the painter in more than thirty-five years. The show, entitled "Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape", was exhibited from March 30 to July 29, 2007. Durand is interred in Brooklyn, New York, in

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope, Brooklyn, South Slope/Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, Win ...

Gallery

Declaration.JPG, 1823
''Declaration of Independence'' (engraving) Luman Reed.jpg, 1835
''Portrait of Luman Reed'' View near Rutland, VT.jpg, 1837
''View near Rutland, Vermont'' HRSOA AsherDurand-GatheringStorm.jpg, 1837
''Gathering Storm'' Asher Brown Durand's The Capture of Major Andre.jpg, 1845
''The Capture of Major Andre'' The Beeches MET DT75.jpg, 1845
'' The Beeches'' The Hunter by Asher Brown Durand.jpg, 1846 ''The Hunter'' The Indian's Vespers by Asher Brown Durand, 1847.jpg, 1847
''The Indian's Vespers'' Nature Study Trees Newburgh New York Asher B Durand.jpeg, 1849
''Nature Study, Trees, Newburgh, New York'' 1850, Durand, Asher Brown, Kaaterskill Landscape.jpg, 1850
''Kaaterskill Landscape'', Princeton University Art Museum Asher Brown Durand - Landscape, Scene from "Thanatopsis".jpg, 1850
''Landscape—Scene from "Thanatopsis"'',

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Progress by Asher Brown Durand.jpg, 1853
''Progress'',

Asher Brown Durand - The Catskills - Walters 37122.jpg, 1859
'' The Catskills'',

The Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially by major American art an ...

1859, Durand, Asher Brown, Landscape.jpg, 1859
''Landscape'', Princeton University Art Museum Rocky Cliff Asher Durand.jpeg, 1860
''Rocky Cliff'', c. 1860, Reynolda House Museum of American Art

External video

References

External links

Smithsonian Institution, Asher B. Durand Biography

at the New York Historical Society

* ttp://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/durand_asher_b.html Artcyclopedia: Paintings in Museums and Public Art Galleriesbr>Art Archive - Asher Brown Durand

*[http://blurblawg.typepad.com/files/property_progress_antebellum_landscape_art.pdf Alfred L. Brophy, "Property and Progress: Antebellum Landscape Art and Property Law," ''McGeorge Law Review'' 40 (2009): 601-59.]
Reynolda House Museum of American Art''Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains extensive material on Durand (see index)
''American paradise: the world of the Hudson River school''
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Durand (see index)
Green-Wood Cemetery Burial Search
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Durand, Asher Brown 1796 births 1886 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Hudson River School painters American romantic painters American landscape painters People from Maplewood, New Jersey Artists from South Orange, New Jersey Davy Crockett Articles containing video clips