The Beeches
Durand’s forest scene encourages a peaceful communing with a picturesque landscape, immersing the viewer’s senses in nature’s presence: the smell of damp earth, soft moss against rough tree bark, rustling leaves, the hooves of sheep, and warm golden sunlight that leads the visitor along a path. A critic noted Durand’s scenes were “quiet and gentle,” a testament to the artist’s ability to capture meditative experiences in nature. Such vertically oriented compositions that embraced this pastoral calm departed from the sweeping grandeur of American Romantic landscape paintings by artists like Thomas Cole.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Beeches
- Artist: Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
- Date: 1845
- Culture: American
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 60 3/8 x 48 1/8 in. (153.4 x 122.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914
- Object Number: 15.30.59
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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Attributed to Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
ca. 1862
Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
1826
Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
1796–1886
Attributed to Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
1824–27
Attributed to Asher Brown Durand (American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
1824–37
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