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The Beeches

1845
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 759
Durand was elected president of New York’s National Academy of Design in 1845 and submitted this monumental landscape to their annual exhibition the following year. Inspired by the bucolic scenes of the British painter John Constable, Durand relied on a large-scale vertical format for his image of daily country life, complete with a shepherd leading a flock into an American pastoral drenched in mellow light. For the first time, Durand based his composition on a sketch he made in nature, a practice he would increasingly embrace.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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

More Artwork

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Harem Girl Smoking a Pipe
Asher Brown Durand
William John Hennessy
ca. 1862
Sweethearts and Wives
Asher Brown Durand
A. R. Poole
1826
Sketchbook of Landscape and Figure Subjects, Asher Brown Durand American, Drawings in graphite on off-white wove paper, bound in a green cardboard cover, American
Sketchbook of Landscape and Figure Subjects
Asher Brown Durand
1796–1886
Proof of one side of a New York Merchants Banking Company 100 Dollar Bill, Asher Brown Durand American, Engraving; proof
Proof of one side of a New York Merchants Banking Company 100 Dollar Bill
Multiple artists/makers
1824–27
Proofs of Bank of New York One Dollar Bill and Two Dollar Bill, Asher Brown Durand American, Engraving; proof
Proofs of Bank of New York One Dollar Bill and Two Dollar Bill
Multiple artists/makers
1824–37

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