TitleAriadne
Engraver
Asher B. Durand
(American, 1796 - 1886)
Original artistAfter
John Vanderlyn
(American, 1775 - 1852)
Publisher
Asher B. Durand
(New York) (American, 1796 - 1886)
Date1835
MediumEngraving on medium weight paper
DimensionsSheet size: 26 1/4 x 34 5/8 in.
Plate size: 17 5/8 x 20 7/8 in.
Mat size: 28 x 36 1/4 in.
SignedSigned lower right: Eng. by A. B. Durand
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of Mary Danforth Dodge and Elizabeth Dodge in memory of their grandfather, M.I. Danforth, 1927
Object number1986.196
Label TextDurand was a native of New Jersey. He served an apprenticeship with the engraver Peter Maverick from 1812 to 1817. Following the apprenticeship the two men opened a joint office in New York. In 1820, Durand received a major commission to create an engraving after John Trumbull's painting The Declaration of Independence. In the early 1830s he was active in creating engravings for the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, and in 1835 he created his famous engraving after John Vanderlyn's painting Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos. The work, painted in 1812 and inspired by a Hellenistic statue in the collection of the Vatican, was purchased by Durand. His engraving is among his greatest accomplishments in any medium and was admired as such during his day. The exceptional modeling of the figure, grace and confidence of line, and fully-developed landscape collectively reveal the artist's mastery of his craft. Durand later wrote that "a fine engraving gives us all the greatest essentials of a fine picture, and often a higher suggestiveness than the original it represents." This impression of the print is inscribed by Durand to landscape painter John Bunyan Bristol, NA (1826-1909).
