Asher Brown Durand

Known as the “father of American landscape painting”, Asher Durand was the major exponent of the Hudson River School style of painting. However, he did not take up painting with any seriousness until he was age forty. His early career was engraving, and in 1823.

Thomas Cole encouraged Durand to give up print-making for painting. In 1837, Cole, then the most famous landscape painter in America, and Durand took a sketching trip to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks, and at that time, Durand became committed to landscape painting, which meant a major change in his career.