Estimated Price:

   £   

Realised Price:

   £   

What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.

Log in or subscribe to view price data

(lower left) oil on canvas 241/8 x 171/4 in. (61.3 x 43.8 cm) painted circa 1850 provenance Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., new york Lano Art Associates, new york, 1975 Private Collection, new york Literature David B. Lawall, asher b. durand, a documentary catalogue of the narrative and landscape paintings, new york and london, 1978, p. 177, no. 358, fig. 201 (illustrated) Asher B. Durand never sought to sell his oil studies of rocks and trees, such as Woodland Scene. Although he frequently exhibited his studies of nature at the National Academy of Design, where he served as president, they were his own personal records of nature which he used in developing his larger compositions. Through exhibition, these studies also served to embody his theories of landscape painting and thus instruct younger artists by vividly illustrating the now-familiar words of his "Letters on Landscape Painting," published in The Crayon in 1855: Let him scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him, until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity, and then he may approach her on more familiar terms, even venturing to choose and reject some portions of her unbounded wealth; but never let him profane her sacredness by a wilful departure from the truth.... Paint and repaint until you are sure the work represents the model - not that it merely resembles it.... It is only thus you can learn to read the great book of Nature, to comprehend it, and eventually transcribe from its pages, and attach to the transcript your own commentaries. As Durand implies, this meticulous regard for the integrity of nature and for the divinity of her origins was no mere exercise in imitation. Durand~dq~s studies, with their moss-covered boulders, varied ground cover and gestural tree limbs, not only provide intimate glimpses of a uniquely American landscape, freely accessible to every citizen, but also emphasize nature~dq~s underlying and ancient vitality, the narrative behind the covers of her "great book.".