1796-1886 Asher Brown Durand Galleries His interest shifted from engraving to oil painting around 1830 with the encouragement of his patron, Luman Reed. In 1837, he accompanied his friend Thomas Cole on a sketching expedition to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks and soon after he began to concentrate on landscape painting. He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School. Durand is particularly remembered for his detailed portrayals of trees, rocks, and foliage. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth." Like other Hudson River School artists, Durand also believed that nature was an ineffable manifestation of God. He expressed this sentiment and his general views on art in his "Letters on Landscape Painting" in The Crayon, a mid-19th century New York art periodical. Wrote Durand, "[T]he true province of Landscape Art is the representation of the work of God in the visible creation..." Durand is noted for his 1849 painting Kindred Spirits which shows fellow Hudson River School artist Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant in a Catskills landscape. This was painted as a tribute to Cole upon his death in 1848. The painting, donated by Bryant's daughter Julia to the New York Public Library in 1904, was sold by the library through Sotheby's at an auction in May 2005 to Alice Walton for a purported $35 million. The sale was conducted as a sealed, first bid auction, so the actual sales price is not known. At $35 million, however, it would be a record price paid for an American painting at the time.  Related Paintings of Asher Brown Durand :. | Landscape,Sunset | Landscape Composition | Landscape | Alpine View,Near Meyringen | Classic Italy |
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Bernhard Rode
Bernhard Rode (25 July 1725 - died 28 June 1797) was a Prussian artist and engraver well-known for portraying historical scenes and allegorical works. He knew most of the central figures in the Berlin Enlightenment as Friedrich Nicolai and Gotthold Lessing, and the philosophical and political discussions of the Berlin Philosophs informed much of the subject matter of his artistic work. His paintings include several works depicting, in various guises, the King of Prussia Frederick the Great, who ruled the Prussia during much of Rode's lifetime. Rode was director of the Berlin Academy of the Arts from 1783 until his death in 1797. Rode was the son of a goldsmith Christian Bernhard Rode and his wife, Anna Sophie. The copper engraver Johann Heinrich Rode and the sculptor Philipp Rode were his brothers. He received his earliest artistic training from his father and his earliest training in drawing from a painter, N. Meller. His four-year education at the studio of the court painter Antoine Pesne, an influential painter in Berlin and Brandenburg, was important to his professional development. During his apprenticeship, he learned to paint portraits. In 1748, Rode began a study trip of several years. He spent 18 months in the studio of Jean Restout and Charles Andre van Loo (sometimes known as Carle van Loo or Vanloo). He became acquainted with Jean-Baptiste Deshayes and developed his talent and interest in the medium of history painting. In Venice and Rome, he studied the old masters. In 1755 or 1756, he returned to Berlin, and he married Sophie Luise, but the earliest years of their marriage remained childless.
Stephen Pearce
(London, 1819-904) was a portrait and equestrian painter. Forty-four portraits which he painted are in the National Portrait Gallery in London, which also contains two self-portraits.
Antonie Waldorp
(The Hague, 28 March, 1803 - Amsterdam, 12 October, 1866) was a Dutch painter and a forerunner of the Hague School. Anthonie Waldorp was the son of Abel de Saaijer Waldorp and Jacomina Godde, and the grandson of Jan Gerard Waldor, who was superintendent of the National Art Gallery. On February 25, 1824 he married Johanna Sophia Waldorp van Hove. At the wedding in The Hague there was a clerical error in the marital attachments, mistakenly registering Anthonie as Anthonie Waldorp instead of Saaijer Waldorp. Shortly after his 23rd birthday, Anthonie decides to follow a career as a painter and became one of the precursors of the Hague School. Anthonie took an apprenticeship with the well known stage scenery painter Joannes Breckenheimer jr. (1772-1856) in The Hague, who was also the tutor of the well known painter Andreas Schelfhout. Anthonie started painting stage sceneries like his grandfather. Later he focused on domestic and church interiors and portraits (people in 17th century costumes). Finally he specialized in landscapes, river and seascapes (paintings, drawings and water colors). It proved to be a wise decision as it led to international recognition. He also did some lithographic work. In 1833, together with Wijnand Nuyen, he traveled through France, Belgium and Germany and became the tutor of C.P. et Hoen, J.C. Hofman, C. Rochussen and Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch. Many of his paintings were bought by German, Dutch and French kings. Until 1857 he lived in The Hague, after which he settled in Amsterdam where he joined the Royal Academy . He received several awards: in 1845 Waldorp was appointed Knight of the Order of Leopold by the Belgian king, Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 1847 by King William II and Knight in the Order of the Oak Crown in 1849 by William. In The Hague and Amsterdam there are streets named after Anthonie Waldorp.