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Alexander Gallery

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We look sightly down and across a green meadow in front of us at a grove of tall trees to our left next to a shimmering body of water, before a deep view of distant mountains beneath an ice-blue sky in this horizontal landscape. A few slate-gray boulders and fallen tree trunks line the view along the bottom edge of the composition. To our left, tall, moss-green, leafy trees rise nearly the height of the canvas, shading a winding, dirt path that leads to building with white walls and a gray roof in the distance. A tower standing next to the structure suggests this could be a church. The land slopes gently to the water, perhaps a river, where five brown and white cows gather near the sand-colored shoreline at the lower center of the composition. Another pair of cows, one white and one chestnut brown, stand closer to us. The placid surface of the water reflects the pale blue of the sky and the soft green of the tree-covered hill across the river. The river winds under an arched bridge, into the distance to our left. Minuscule buildings and pointed spires dot the landscape that becomes hazy in the distance. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the canvas, and a few wispy, grayish clouds float across the light blue sky. The brushstrokes are blended and the palette dominated by earthy greens, browns, and watery blue, giving the landscape a soft appearance. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had written his name on a rock near the lower left corner: “ABDurand 1861.”
Asher Brown Durand, Pastoral Landscape, 1861, oil on canvas, Gift of The Manoogian Foundation, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.96.1

Pastoral Landscape

Asher Brown Durand · 1861 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.96.1

A tall arrangement of blue irises, cream-white carnations, violets, peonies, tulips, and other azure-blue, white, and scarlet-red flowers in a terracotta urn carved with child-like putti takes up most of the space of this vertical still life painting. The arrangement is warmly lit from the upper left and sits near a corner of a stone ledge veined in caramel brown and golden yellow. The ledge extends off the right edge of the painting. Most of the flowers face us but some face away or droop down. Leggy tulips in full bloom rise high in the bouquet. A cluster of white peonies veined lightly with pale pink are gathered near a crimson-edged white carnation and vivid blue forget-me-nots near the center, above the urn. The stems and blossoms of other flowers swirl and twist through the arrangement. A small brown and orange butterfly with black spots perches with wings slightly open on a scarlet-red poppy at the top center. Another butterfly sits with wings spread near the front corner of the ledge. Black circles surrounded by rings that blend from sapphire blue to butter yellow look like eyes at the tips of each of the four wings. A third butterfly with white wings is partly visible behind the petals of a ruby-red peony in the lower right. A small bird’s nest woven with twigs and green moss sits to our right of the urn, and is filled with four blue eggs. The background behind the arrangement is streaked with sable brown and mustard yellow. The signature of the artist is written in cursive on the face of the stone ledge near the corner, “Jan Van Huysum fecit.”
Jan van Huysum, Flowers in an Urn, c. 1720/1722, oil on panel, Adolph Caspar Miller Fund, 1977.7.1

Flowers in an Urn

Jan van Huysum · c. 1720/1722 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1977.7.1