TitleThe Evening of Life
Artist
Asher B. Durand
(American, 1796 - 1886)
Date1840
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 49 3/8 × 83 3/8 in.
Framed: 61 3/4 × 95 7/8 × 5 7/8 in.
SignedSigned at lower left: "A. B. Durand / 1840".
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of Mrs. Frederick J. Betts, 1911
Object number387-P
Label TextThis pair of paintings was first exhibited in the Academy annual of 1840 under the titles "Landscape," "Composition," "Morning," "Landscape," and "Evening," suggesting that Durand, or Frederick J. Betts, who commissioned the works, was not as interested in the allegorical nature of his paintings as in stressing their claim to the picturesque-landscape tradition of such artists as Claude Lorraine. The critic for the New-York Mirror grasped this intention while noting their close affinity with Thomas Cole's Departure and Return (1837, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which had been exhibited at the Academy in 1838. In all their iconographic details Durand certainly intended that the Morning and Evening would lead viewers to contemplate the contrast between youth and age, hope and patience, the pagan world of antiquity and Christian world of the Middle Ages. However, despite the contemporary complaint that he was imitating his friend and mentor, Thomas Cole, Durand demonstrates a remarkable degree of independence here in that he has made such didacticism subservient to the overall pastoral theme of the idealized, composite landscape. At this early stage in his career as a landscapist, Durand seems more drawn to the long-standing traditions of such art than to the innovations being pursued by his closest colleague.
Collections
- 19th Century Highlights from the Collection
