1796-1886 Asher Brown Durand Galleries His interest shifted from engraving to oil painting around 1830 with the encouragement of his patron, Luman Reed. In 1837, he accompanied his friend Thomas Cole on a sketching expedition to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks and soon after he began to concentrate on landscape painting. He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School. Durand is particularly remembered for his detailed portrayals of trees, rocks, and foliage. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "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." Like other Hudson River School artists, Durand also believed that nature was an ineffable manifestation of God. He expressed this sentiment and his general views on art in his "Letters on Landscape Painting" in The Crayon, a mid-19th century New York art periodical. Wrote Durand, "[T]he true province of Landscape Art is the representation of the work of God in the visible creation..." Durand is noted for his 1849 painting Kindred Spirits which shows fellow Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant in a Catskills landscape. This was painted as a tribute to Cole upon his death in 1848. The painting, donated by Bryant's daughter Julia to the New York Public Library in 1904, was sold by the library through Sotheby's at an auction in May 2005 to Alice Walton for a purported $35 million. The sale was conducted as a sealed, first bid auction, so the actual sales price is not known. At $35 million, however, it would be a record price paid for an American painting at the time.  Related Paintings of Asher Brown Durand :. | Study from Nature,Bronxville | Jonathan Sturges | Aarom Ogden | The Durand Children | Lake Scene in the Mountains |
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Jakob Mertens
Jakob Merten (August 11, 1809 - February 22, 1872) was a German Catholic theologian who was born in Wittlich. He studied theology in Trier, where in 1833 he received his ordination. Subsequently he became a chaplain in Trier, where he worked closely with Franz Peter Knoodt (1811-1889). From 1843 to 1868 he was a professor of philosophy at the Episcopal Seminary in Trier. Initially a prominent follower of Anton Genther's philosophy, Merten eventually abandoned Gentherianism as his career progressed. He was author of an essay on Gentherian philosophy titled Hauptfragen der Metaphysik in Verbindung mit der Speculation (Primary Questions of Metaphysics in Association with Speculation) (1840). Other noted works by Merten include: Grundriss der Metaphysik, (Outline of Metaphysics); 1848 Der selige Frings und sein Freund als Antigentherianer; 1852 Bemerkungen zur Metaphysik von Balmes, (Remarks on the Metaphysics of Balmes); 1859
El Greco
Greek-born Spanish Mannerist Painter, 1541-1614 Considered a representative of late Renaissance Spanish art, El Greco was actually born in Greece, on the island of Crete. After studying in Venice under Titian, El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain in 1577. At the time he was wildly popular, his emotionally religious paintings being just the ticket for the hometown of the Spanish Inquisition. After his death his work was largely ignored until the beginning of the 20th century; now he considered one of the inspired geniuses of Western art. His distinctive style features bold shapes and colors, with elongated and slightly distorted figures. In Toledo El Greco was in constant demand and liked living large: he maintained a private orchestra to accompany his meals.
Matthys Naiveu
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1647-ca.1721