Cole's Circle

D

Durand, Asher B. (1796-1886)

American engraver, portraitist, and Hudson River School landscape painter who, along with John Trumbull, bought one of Cole's paintings in 1825. Durand, Cole, and poet William Cullen Bryant maintained a close friendship throughout their lives, joined by their mutual involvement in American arts and culture. Durand helped to found the National Academy of Design, acting as its president from 1845-61. It was Cole who first persuaded Durand to begin landscape painting and taught him how to sketch outdoors, and together the two artists took many summer sketching trips to the Catskill, White, and Adirondack mountains. Durand painted Kindred Spirits (1849) after Cole's death, forever memorializing the friendship of the three men. See John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand and Asher B. Durand.