Description:
landscape; vegetation; outdoor
Label Text:
One of the first American artists to advocate the importance of painting out-of-doors, Durand believed that focused exposure to the minute details of nature was necessary for the landscape painter to fully appreciate God’s lessons in the natural world. This highly finished sketch, made in preparation for a larger composition titled In the Woods (1855; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), was probably painted outside, at least in part. Durand paid particular attention to the mossy textures of the trees in the foreground.
The arcing tree limbs create a type of natural cathedral that resonate with the words of poet William Cullen Bryant, a friend and supporter of the Hudson River School painters: “The groves were God’s first temples.”
This landscape by Asher B. Durand is surrounded by an American frame dating from the 1850s-1860s. The frame is a variation on European neoclassical styles and features branch and flower ornamentation along the top edge and a diaper (diamond-shaped) pattern on the cove. The ornamentation is not carved from wood, as it would have been before the 19th century. Instead, it is made from a molding material that is attached to the wooden base of the frame. Under the guidance of Museum staff, Smith College students (and one Hampshire College student) completed the restoration of this frame from 2004 through 2005 as part of an apprenticeship program designed to teach professional techniques in frame restoration. The frame was cleaned and repaired. It was also regilded, to correct an earlier attempt at restoration that had been made with impure gold leaf which had since discolored to a bright green.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1952.107 |
