In the year 1855, the same that saw the first publication of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, American landscape painter Asher B. Durand published a series of nine letters on landscape painting in his son’s popular New York art journal, The Crayon. In these “letters to a student,” Durand articulated the principles of his art, combining highly poetic and spiritualized reflections with solid practical instruction in pictorial representation.
Durand’s short yet rich essays have been called the most complete expression of the philosophies of the Hudson River School. Even now they hold valuable insights for today’s painters and collectors. Art historian James Flexner describes the complete set of Durand’s letters as “one of those rare documents that summarizes the spirit of a group and a generation.”
The Crayon’s introduction to the letters has a rather timely feel for us today: “In the midst of a great commercial crisis, while fortunes of years’ growth have been falling around us, and the panic-stricken world of business has been gathering in its resources, to save what it may from wreck, an effort has been organized, having for its object the education of our countrymen to the perception and enjoyment of Beauty. And though the time seems unpropitious, we have a faith that to Beauty and its messengers, even times and seasons have a deference.”
Asher B. Durand, In the Woods, 1855, oil, 60 3/4 x 48 in. (154.3 x 121.9 cm)
Beauty was indeed the stated goal and working en plein air was the ideal way to comprehend and capture it. Durand wrote that direct study from nature empowers the artist to transcend standard compositional formulas, providing “the only safeguard against the inroads of heretical conventionalism.” Conventionalism he defines as “the substitution of an easily expressed falsehood for a difficult truth.” He advised students to begin with a thorough familiarity with the pencil before graduating to paint, and to develop a mastery of foreground objects in strong light and shade before attempting atmospheric distances.
“I do not say that simple naturalness necessarily makes a picture great, but that none can be great without it” seems to be his final word His outlook, however, betrays a heartfelt attentiveness to something far less concrete, something he calls “the Infinity of nature.” His ulterior motive for “referring the student to the study of nature,” he confesses, is “her influence on the mind and heart.”
Asher B. Durand, Summer Afternoon, 1865, oil, 22 1/2 x 35 in. (57.2 x 88.9 cm)
The goal in plein-air sketching then, according to Durand, is to render nature as faithfully as possible as well as to commune with “the Infinite” to be found there. The artist is to “scrupulously accept whatever she presents him, until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity, and then he may approach her on more familiar terms, even venturing to choose and reject some portions of her unbounded wealth.”
Therefore Durand allowed that the artist “may displace a tree, or render it a more perfect one of its kind if retained,” but that if he or she really wanted to be true to the divinity in nature, one could do no better than render its splendid sight as it appears. The placement of elements in the middle ground and the “characteristic outline, undulating or angular, of all the great divisions, may not be changed in the least perceptible degree, most especially the mountain and hill forms. For, “on these God has set his signet.”
Still elsewhere he says that the great artist sees through “the sensuous veil, and embodies the spiritual beauty with which nature is animate, and in whose presence the baser ‘passions shrink and tremble, and are still.’”
Asher B. Durand, Sketch from Nature, c. 1855, graphite on gray-green wove paper, 13 13/16 x 9 7/8 in. (35.1 x 25.1 cm)
For Durand, it is within the external appearances of the visible world that the artist discovers nature’s “lessons of high and holy meaning.” Devotion to diligent study with pencil and brush leads the open heart to the inescapable conclusion: “That all which we behold/Is full of blessings” and that … in proportion as you acquire executive skill, your productions will, unawares, be imbued with that undefinable quality which distinguishes the true landscape from the mere sensual and striking picture.”
Each person’s perception of the outer world then, is to be filtered by his or her sensitivity to the divine embodied there. As published, Durand’s first letter is followed by a passage from the German literary giant Goethe addressing the idea that the artist who confines him or herself to merely copying the natural world will eventually find the mimetic mode “too timid and inadequate.” The artist then “invents a way, devises a language … to express in his own fashion the idea his soul has attained.”
Asher B. Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization), 1853, Framed: 58 7/16 × 82 1/4 × 4 3/8 in. (148.43 × 208.92 × 11.11 cm) Unframed: 48 × 72 in. (121.92 × 182.88 cm) Virginia Museum of Art
By far the most valuable study, Durand attests, is always done “’Under the open sky’ and there would I direct you,” he writes, “to ‘Go forth and list (listen) / To Nature’s teachings, while from all around / Earth and her waters, and the depths of air / Comes a still voice’ – a voice that no student can disregard with impunity, nor heed without joy and gladness.”
And surely that is something that not only we artists but all of us can use more of today.
The techniques of the Hudson River School painters, including Durand, are alive today in the work and teaching of Erik Koeppel. If you’re interested in learning their methods, from sketching from nature to dramatic light and luminous distance, you may want to take a look at a specially priced video set, the Erik Koeppel: Hudson River School Bundle.
Free Video: The Secret to Beautiful Pastel Mark-Making
By Karen Margulis
Do you know the secret to beautiful pastel mark making? Do you know how to get those fat pastel sticks to make the marks that you want? It is all about the pressure we use….or the Touch!
In a new video demo on YouTube, Karen Margulis shares her way of thinking about the touch she uses to get beautiful and effective marks. Click on the link below to go to the video on her channel:
“I selected the subject for the video based on a question I asked on Facebook and Instagram,” she says. “I have a bowl of pastel bits and pieces and I asked what I should paint with the purple bits! I received some great answers including several requests for a lavender field! I am keeping the list for future demos!”
Karen gives a deep dive into her techniques in her masterclass video Karen Margulis: Expressive Pastel Painting
