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Accession #	15.326
Artist	Asher B. Durand
Title	Landscape (Birch and Oaks)
Date	ca. 1855-1857
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	23 15/16 × 17 7/8 in. (60.8 × 45.4 cm) frame: 33 3/8 × 27 3/8 × 4 1/2 in. (84.8 × 69.5 × 11.4 cm)
Signed	Signed lower right: "A B D"
Credit Line	Bequest of Charles A. Schieren
Location	American Identities: Centennial Era

Curatorial Remarks: Asher B. Durand, considered a founder of the Hudson River School along with Thomas Cole (represented in this gallery), was also identified with the progressive practices of plein air (outdoor) painting and innovative pictorial types. By the 1850s forest interiors in a compressed vertical format, as seen in this outdoor study, had become Durand’s signature compositional type. Here, the diagonal thrust of the trees dominates the foreground, while crisply delineated textures and contrasts of light and shadow convey minute detail, suggesting careful study from nature.