Woodland Path
Artist
Asher Brown Durand
(American, 1796 - 1886)
Date1846
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 29 x 25 x 4 1/4in. (73.7 x 63.5 x 10.8cm)
Image: 21 1/2 x 17 1/4in. (54.6 x 43.8cm)
Image: 21 1/2 x 17 1/4in. (54.6 x 43.8cm)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Terms
Object number86.62
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextDurand painted some of the Hudson River School's most canonical landscapes during his long, productive, and critically-acclaimed career. He also painted numerous tree studies which served as source material for his studio compositions. These outdoor oil studies are acclaimed for their spontaneity, reverence for nature, and their significance as examples of mid-19th-century "plein-air" painting.
The Museum's picture of a forest interior with two species of trees seemingly embracing is a recurrent motif in Durand's nature studies. Many of these works were executed in a vertical format, a compositional device used earlier in the century by the English landscape painter, John Constable (1776-1837). More unusual in the Museum's painting are the small strokes of paint that define the forms, colors, and textures of the trees' leaves and trunks. Other outdoor tree studies by Durand are more thinly painted, or were only partially completed. Although Durand probably began the Museum's picture out-of-doors, its buttery surface suggests that he also worked on the picture in his studio, a setting that was more conducive for him to execute the painterly brushstrokes evident in this work. The presence of the artist's initials "A.B.D." on the leaf of a plant in the left foreground suggests that Durand even considered this work a completed painting instead of an informal oil sketch.
The fragment of an old paper label that has survived on the painting's original stretcher indicates that the work was owned by Charles Lanman (1819-95), a government official, librarian, explorer, and talented painter, who studied with Durand and was friends with numerous artists through his membership in the National Academy of Design. Lanman is remembered today as one of the most insightful writers on art in mid-19th-century America.
Paul D. Schweizer
In what might be a reference to the MWP picture, Lanman wrote in his Letter to the Editor: "An Aged Artist at Home" (photocopy in MWP files), The Tribune [Washington, D.C.], December, 23, 1882. "In the library, I noticed a charming watercolor [Lady with her Page and Dog] from the pencil of John G. Chapman, which I presented to Mr. Durand in 1847, in return for one of his own pictures given to me in the same year."
Paul D. Schweizer
January, 2013
