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Lot Essay
Painted at the height of Asher B. Durand's career, Haymaking is a poetic work, which expresses the artist's unique and reverent vision of the American landscape. As soon as Durand began exhibiting his paintings, American critics acknowledged the quality of the artist's compositions and his place in the development of a national style. In 1847 a critic for the New York Evening Post compared Cole and Durand, writing, "It is now generally conceded, we believe, that Cole and Durand are the two most prominent landscape painters in this country. They are indeed artists of superior ability, and will undoubtedly hereafter be looked upon as the founders of two American schools. Each one is distinguished for peculiar excellencies...Durand paints the better study from nature so far as individuality is concerned, but Cole produces with greater truth the uncommon effects observable in nature...Cole has a passion for the wild and tempestuous; Durand is a lover of the cultivated country when glowing in mellow sunlight." (as quoted in L.S. Ferber, Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2007, p. 161)
Haymaking captures the harmony that Durand saw in the nation's scenery with the stylistic sophistication that epitomizes his finest works. The foreground abounds with rich detail, the middle ground depicts a scene of pastoral tranquility and an expansive vista carries the viewer to the mountains and ominous sky in the background. While the cattle at the water’s edge, the children at play in the meandering currents of the river, and the farmers hard at work serve to provide further detail to the dramatic scene, the verdant landscape serves as the principal subject. The scene is saturated with a warm, golden sunlight, which enhances its Edenic qualities and bestows the composition with a divine character. The shade, which enshrines the left side of the composition, serves as a foil for the light-filled vista and heightens its glorious effect. Oswaldo R. Roque has noted, "The effect of the success of Durand's style was to push American landscape painting further toward nature and away from man. His broader attitude to what was picture-worthy in nature and his assertion that attentiveness to nature's details was the only way of arriving at the truth were of vast import. His approach, of course, was productive of a realism that in subsequent years was taken to be his major contribution to the Hudson River School." (American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, New York, 1987, p. 37)
Haymaking, captures the harmonious equilibrium between civilized man and the wilds of nature, and the peace and plenty that comes from a free and democratic nation. This balance is an aspect of Durand's work that struck a particularly respondent chord with the American public, whose reaction to the Industrial Revolution was a growing nostalgia for the nation's pastoral history. The continuing appeal of naturalistic works such as Haymaking lies in their ability to simultaneously evoke the fleeting, yet powerful romance between man and nature during the formation of modern society, and speak to the continuing bond between Americans and their landscape.
Haymaking captures the harmony that Durand saw in the nation's scenery with the stylistic sophistication that epitomizes his finest works. The foreground abounds with rich detail, the middle ground depicts a scene of pastoral tranquility and an expansive vista carries the viewer to the mountains and ominous sky in the background. While the cattle at the water’s edge, the children at play in the meandering currents of the river, and the farmers hard at work serve to provide further detail to the dramatic scene, the verdant landscape serves as the principal subject. The scene is saturated with a warm, golden sunlight, which enhances its Edenic qualities and bestows the composition with a divine character. The shade, which enshrines the left side of the composition, serves as a foil for the light-filled vista and heightens its glorious effect. Oswaldo R. Roque has noted, "The effect of the success of Durand's style was to push American landscape painting further toward nature and away from man. His broader attitude to what was picture-worthy in nature and his assertion that attentiveness to nature's details was the only way of arriving at the truth were of vast import. His approach, of course, was productive of a realism that in subsequent years was taken to be his major contribution to the Hudson River School." (American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, New York, 1987, p. 37)
Haymaking, captures the harmonious equilibrium between civilized man and the wilds of nature, and the peace and plenty that comes from a free and democratic nation. This balance is an aspect of Durand's work that struck a particularly respondent chord with the American public, whose reaction to the Industrial Revolution was a growing nostalgia for the nation's pastoral history. The continuing appeal of naturalistic works such as Haymaking lies in their ability to simultaneously evoke the fleeting, yet powerful romance between man and nature during the formation of modern society, and speak to the continuing bond between Americans and their landscape.