After establishing a successful career as an engraver and portrait artist, Asher Brown Durand (American, 1796-1886) began specializing in landscapes during the late 1830s as a member of the Hudson River School. His forest interiors embody his belief that the artist should aspire to the greatest possible fidelity in capturing the actual appearance of the natural world. To achieve the close, almost scientific, observation of nature he espoused, he took numerous excursions into the woods so he could work directly from the landscape.
Painting with carefully controlled brushwork and often with considerable glazing, Durand regarded his studies as finished works in their own right. “Every tree has its traits of individuality,” he said. In Forest in the Morning Light, one in a series of “tree portraits” the artist painted, the…
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Pleinair (Digital) - 1 Issue, December/January 2024-2025