“The Catskills”
A school of art close to my heart, please enjoy this landscape from the Hudson River School of Art.
This oil on canvas painting, titled “The Catskills”, was made in 1859 by the American artist, Asher B. Durand. It was commissioned in 1858 by the American businessman, William Thompson Walters, whose extensive art collection founded the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
The painting depicts Plattekill Clove in the Catskill Mountain region. The Catskills are a mountain range in upstate New York where the artist, Thomas Cole, lived and worked. Cole was the founder of the Hudson River School of Art of which Durand became an integral part.
Durand fell in love with the wild nature of upstate New York and would leave his home in New York City to spend his summer months trekking through the Catskills. He said of them, “now, if there be a man on earth whose location, I envy… it is Thomas Cole”.
Unlike other artists of the day, Durand often employed a ‘portrait’ orientation as seen in the painting here. As part of his signature style, he would use trees to frame the scenery. This piece was made at the apex of Durand’s career. The landscape is painted in the sublime style, which uses terror and wonder to depict the grandness of nature.
“The Catskills” is currently on display at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, 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.
