“Summer Afternoon”
Another perfect landscape from Asher Durand…
“Summer Afternoon” is an oil on canvas painting by the American artist, Asher B. Durand, from 1865. Durand was one of the founders of the Hudson River School of art and became its informal leader following the death of Thomas Cole in 1848.
In this piece, Durand paints a pastoral summer scene. Cattle are in the distance, grazing and drinking the water. The painting is atmospheric. The summer sun is soft, hanging low in the sky. Sunlight bathes the scenery, giving a hazy golden hue to the scene. The view is framed at the bottom by the arc of the shoreline which helps lead the viewer’s gaze across the canvas.
Durand’s specialty was his attention to detail. He was an advocate for realism in his landscapes and preferred to work directly from nature, seeing it as a direct product from the hand of God. He said, “Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity…never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth.”
This painting was commissioned by Morris Jesup, a banker and philanthropist. Jesup was a patron for several Hudson River School artists, including Frederic Edwin Church. He owned a number of paintings by Durand.
Durand painted this near the end of his long career. He was 69 years old at the time. In 1861, during the onset of the Civil War, Durand stepped down as the president of the National Academy of Design, a role which he had served since 1845. Just four years after painting this, in 1869, he would officially retire from the art world.
“Summer Afternoon” is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in the United States.
For more on Asher B. Durand, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
Stunning. I’m in western Washington State, USA, the “Pacific Northwest,” commenting during a dark, rainy day at the end of March. The temp is in the high 40s F. I’ve lived in places on the USA’s East coast, though, when summer afternoons were warm and sticky, and this painting looks to me like that would have been the story here. I’m not sure I’d trade my now for Durand’s then–I remember being pretty uncomfortable in such humidity, although the golden glow such as Durand captured partially compensated in a beautiful way.
I knew Durand’s work generally but not about his fierce commitment to an accurate rendering of nature. Assuming this painting was not “made up” in the studio from a sketch done here, one done there, plus elements supplied by the painter’s imagination makes me even more impressed. He must have worked some from sketches, given that the sun didn’t stand still (nor did the cattle) during the time it would take to make this painting. But the idea that he hewed faithfully to his on-site sketches or at least to accurately done “portraits” of trees and rocks and atmospheric effects and cows, etc, adds something to the viewing, for me.
This post prompted me to brush up on the Hudson River School in general (there is a short excellent essay on the Metropolitan Museums’ website (https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/the-hudson-river-school). I learned that indeed, Durand had looked carefully at the idealized depictions of nature by Thomas Cole and other HRS friend,s but he himself was the one who emphasized plein-air oil sketches after he discovered John Constable’s works and techniques on an 1840 trip to England.
All in all, I’m appreciative as usual of these varied DDoA posts. Each one lifts me out of the mundanity of daily life for a few moments and exposes me to the mind and eye and creation of an artist from another time and place. Always refreshing, sometimes profound. Thank you!
The true northwest! I heard the climate there is really different and beautiful. I’m from Upstate New York and was raised on art from the Hudson River School. They’re sort of our hometown heroes. And there are moments when I’m hiking or just out in nature and it really does look like I’m in a painting.
I’ve always been fond of what Thomas Cole was trying to aspire to with his art, and how he created a movement around it. Aiming for something greater than yourself and trying to show the beauty of the natural world is honorable. Asher Durand was part of it from the beginning. His art is consistently good, and researching him, I really like who he was.
It’s been such a cold winter and I’ve been longing for the hot days of summer. Writing about art from a faraway time and place always seems to help. Researching also offers a much-needed mental vacation from the daily grind. And I’m delighted with the little tidbits of information I pick up along the way.
I really appreciate your comments. They are always so insightful. Thank you!