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Asher B. Durand (American, 1796-1886)
Keene Valley, late 1860s
Oil on canvas, 15 x 24 in.
Signed at lower left, partially obliterated: A.B. Durand.
August Heckscher Collection. 1959.23
Following a successful early career as an engraver, Asher Brown Durand turned to painting in 1835. Considered one of the founders of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, Durand's works depict a romanticized and unspoiled American wilderness. In search of beautiful scenery, he traveled along the Hudson River and in the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the Berkshires, executing studies directly from nature to serve as a basis for his finished studio works. Keene Valley became a popular artists' colony following the Civil War, although Durand may have visited as early as 1848.
Sometime before August Heckscher acquired this work, Durand's signature had been covered with the "signature" of Alexander Wyant. Wyant was the first artist to build a studio at Keene Valley, summering there from the mid-1870's. From his death in 1892 until the 1920's, Wyant was considered second only to Inness among American landscapists, while Durand had fallen from critical favor. Scholarly questions regarding the authenticity of the Wyant signature led to its removal, revealing the partially obliterated Durand signature beneath and, ironically, it is now Durand who is the favored artist.
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