Probably best associated with the Hudson River School of New York, Asher B. Durand was one of America's foremost landscape painters. An exhibition of his work is now being shown at Fundación Juan March’s headquarters in Madrid.
Like many artists of his generation, Durand made a tour of Europe in June 1840, and this is the biggest return of Durand's work to Europe since then. As the first monographic exhibition devoted to his work outside of the U.S.A, the exhibition includes 140 works which pay homage to Durands talents as a landscape painter, but also as a portraitist.
For anyone interested in landscape painting, this is an exhibition not to be missed. While not entirely devoted to his work as a landscape painter, there will certainly be some first class examples of large-scale nineteenth American landscapes on show.
Asher B. Durand.
White Mountain Scenery, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, 1857
The New-York Historical Society
Durand spent a great amount of time between New York and the surrounding countryside along the Hudson River. Painting in the Catskill Mountains, Adriondacks and the valleys along the river, Durand created some of the most iconic images of nineteenth century America and servers as an example of the celebration of the great outdoors.
For European visitors to the exhibition who may be unfamiliar with the work of Durand or the Hudson River School, there will no doubt be a great number of parallels that can be drawn between some of the well know European masters such as Turner, Constable, Rubens or Claude Lorrain.