Rocky Cliff, c. 1860
Oil on canvas, 16 1/2 x 24"
Museum Purchase, 1977.2.6

One of the leaders of 19th-century landscape painting in America, Asher B. Durand shared with his fellow Hudson River artists a love of nature and a sense of pride in the new country's natural resources.  His early works are typical in style to those of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church: large canvases that showcase panoramic views of the American landscape.  Durand also excelled, however, at closely-observed studies of native flora and fauna.  Trained as an engraver, the artist relished the almost scientific precision of these smaller-scale works.  In Rocky Cliff, Durand trades the sky and misty mountain backgrounds of traditional Hudson River scenes for a close-up view of a wild lichen-covered outcropping topped by gnarled, twisted trees.  The artist, however, communicates his wonder at the beauty and natural diversity of the scene just as easily with this intimate work as he had with earlier landscapes on a grander scale.