''The Beeches'' is a mid 19th-century painting by American artist
Asher Brown Durand
Asher Brown Durand (August 21, 1796, – September 17, 1886) was an American painter of the Hudson River School.
Early life
Durand was born in, and eventually died in, Maplewood, New Jersey (then called Jefferson Village). He was the eight ...
. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts a forested path in the
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
. ''Beeches'' has been described as one of Durand's earlier works of
Naturalist art.
Description
''The Beeches'' was painted by Asher Brown Durand in 1845 on behalf of
Abraham Cozzens
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
, a prominent New York art collector. The painting was heavily influenced by the work of British painter
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
, whose work Durand had viewed during an 1840 trip to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. Durand's work reflects a deviation in the
Hudson River School
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...
in which landscape paintings began to shift focus from dramatic natural scenes to more tranquil scenes.
''The Beeches'' is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
See also
*
''The Catskills'' (painting)
References
1845 paintings
Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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