Asher B. Durand: To Begin

In 2015, an important early work by the American landscape painter Asher B. Durand entered the Palmer Museum of Art’s collection at Penn State University. The 1833 painting—the artist’s first commissioned landscape—is the focus of Asher B. Durand: To Begin Again. The exhibition, from Sept. 5 to Dec. 10, 2017, examines a pivotal turning point in the long career of Durand, a leading figure of the Hudson River School.Durand, who worked primarily as an engraver and an occasional portraitist in the 1820s, pursued landscape painting in earnest by the mid-1830s.

The exhibition celebrates this new acquisition, explores Durand’s significant contribution to the history of landscape painting in the United States, and features several major works from both public and private collections.