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Following in the Footsteps of Asher B. Durand: A Walker’s Guide Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape on view at the through July 29, 2007

Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). Kindred Spirits, 1849. Oil on canvas. Crystal Bridges—Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (Photo: © 2006 Board of Trustees, , Washington, D.C.) Following in the Footsteps of Asher B. Durand: A Walker’s Guide

One of America’s preeminent landscape painters, Asher B. Durand was renowned for his many scenic views of the Valley and the Catskills—the quintessential symbols of American wilderness for much of the nineteenth century.

The first known vacationers visited the Catskills in 1819, and America’s first successful mountain tourist hotel, the , was estab- lished shortly thereafter, in 1823. The same year became one of the first artists to paint the Catskill wilderness. The area was subsequently immortalized in the art of Durand and other landscape artists, and in the novels and poetry of James Fenimore Cooper and . By Kaaterskill Clove, a distinctive ravine known as the heart of the Catskills, midcentury it was one of America’s most famous tourist destinations. was one of the places most visited by tourists and most painted by artists. Several grand tourist hotels, now long gone, provided Many of the locales represented by Durand more than a century ago can be accommodations for thousands of seasonal visitors who rose early for the visited today. This guide details a few of the sites depicted in the exhibition daily ritual of viewing the sunrise over the Hudson. Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape and provides information on how to visit them. Visitors should consult the guides cited Artists often stayed at local boardinghouses, which were cheaper and quieter at the end of this text to gauge length and difficulty of walks. than the hotels, and explored the many creeks, cloves, and cascades of the area in search of interesting natural details. In contrast, most visitors saw Fig. 1. Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). Kindred Spirits, 1849. Oil on canvas. Crystal Bridges—Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (Photo: ©2006 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) only the well-known views and seldom strayed far from the hotel grounds. The more intrepid could hike the Durand’s Kaaterskill Clove (fig. 2) mountain along the north rim depicts a classic view of the site, of the clove to and looking across the forested moun- other cascades or hire a guide for tains toward the hazy Hudson River longer excursions through the dense Valley. The area shown in Durand’s woods to , on verdant vista, protected as part of the south side of the clove. the Catskill Forest Preserve, looks much the same today, although the Once the most popular in America, painting does not accurately repre- the trails around Kaaterskill Clove sent the view Durand himself would afforded magnificent mountain have seen. The artist omitted the vistas, towering cascades, and many signs of regional industry— narrow cliff walks. Today these trails farms, sawmills, tanneries, paper are still the most popular, accessible, and furniture factories—that and historically significant of the dotted the landscape at the time, Fig. 2. Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). Kaaterskill Clove, 1866. Oil on canvas. The Century Association, Catskill region, designated the and the many treeless clearings , 1866.6 Catskill Forest Preserve in 1885. where the wood had been felled for industrial uses. made in Palenville, the town at the accessed by hikers, the view in Durand’s Kindred Spirits (fig. 1) is mouth of Kaaterskill Clove, and Kaaterskill Clove is very similar to perhaps the most famous repre- There were many overlooks along nearby in 1858. One that seen from the parking lot at sentation of the Catskill landscape. the rim of the clove that offered of these oil sketches, A Sycamore the foot of Bastion Falls on Rt. 23A, A view up a deep clove toward a marvelous vistas; the spectacular Tree, Plaaterkill Clove, can also be 3.5 miles west of the intersection cataract that may or may not be view described in Kaaterskill Clove seen in the exhibition. of Rts. 23A and 32A in Palenville. Kaaterskill Falls, the painting is has been identified as that seen There is also a hiking trail to actually a “composition” combining from the Santa Cruz Falls. Situated Landscape with , circa 1855, Kaaterskill Falls beginning here. many of the characteristic geologic on the south rim of the clove, almost suggests the view east toward the and natural features of the Catskill directly opposite the famous Hudson River from one of the many Other magnificent views down the landscape. The foreground ledge Kaaterskill Falls, Santa Cruz Falls scenic points in Kaaterskill Clove. clove are afforded from the many may have been based on a rock was, in Durand’s day, a popular outlooks on the trails along the formation known as Church’s scenic point on the path from Haines TO VISIT north rim of the clove. Parking is Ledge, and the waterfall modeled Falls to Kaaterskill High Peak. This The area around Kaaterskill Falls available on Schutt Road, just to on Fawn’s Leap, one of the smaller popular all-day hike was included is accessible from the many trails the right before the entrance to the waterfalls on the south side of in local guidebooks in the 1870s, starting at the North-South Lake North-South Lake Public Camp- Kaaterskill Clove. Within this rocky though today High Peak is seldom Public Campground, near Haines ground. gorge, Durand has depicted his visited. Falls, New York (14 miles from recently deceased friend and Saugerties, exit 20 on I-87; take Fawn’s Leap and other waterfalls in mentor Thomas Cole engaged in In two other paintings in the exhibi- Rt. 32, then Rt. 32A, then Rt. the clove are on public land but not earnest discourse with his friend tion, Durand sought to suggest 23A west). easily accessible. For hiking direc- the poet William Cullen Bryant. the characteristic scenery of tions, see Russell Dunn’s Catskill Both men were fervent admirers of Kaaterskill Clove. The Catskills, Although Santa Cruz Falls is now Region Waterfall Guide. the natural wonders of the region. 1859, was composed from sketches on private land and cannot be View from North Mountain Dover Plains Thomas Cole’s view from Bear’s Den Durand visited Dover Plains in 1847, (fig. 3; on display in the American a few years after it had become Identities galleries, 5th floor) is the last station on the railroad from the classic North Mountain vista. New York. He may have stopped to Here we see the Catskill Mountain visit the area’s tourist attraction, House in the middle distance on the natural rock cavern called the South Mountain, with Kaaterskill Stone Church, whose entrance High Peak and Roundtop Mountain evocative of a Gothic arch is seventy in the far distance. Cole’s choice of Fig. 4. Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). feet high and fourteen feet wide. Pitch Pines, North Mountain, Catskills, New York, vantage point was quite unusual; 1848. Graphite on gray-green paper. The New-York Historical Society Museum, Gift of Nora Durand Fig. 5. Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). in his time the most famous views Woodman, 1918.73 Although Durand somewhat Dover Plains, Dutchess County, New York, 1848. Oil of the area were from Kaaterskill exaggerated the size of the moun- on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum, inclusion in the Catskill Preserve, Washington, D.C., Gift of Thomas M. Evans Clove and Kaaterskill Falls, near tains in the background of his and museum purchase through the Smithsonian the landscape looks much as it did Institution Collections Acquisition Program, the hotels on South Mountain. painting of Dover Plains (fig. 5), 1978.126 in Cole’s painting. the work is mostly true to life. The drumlin, or small knob formed by During a stay at Catskill Mountain glacial action, in the right foreground House late in the summer of 1848, was removed a few years ago Durand made a sketch of windblown when it was sold for use as road pines (fig. 4). Quite possibly he was gravel. there to collect studies in preparation for Kindred Spirits. This particular TO VISIT sketch was made on North Moun- Dover Plains is about 20 miles tain, where pitch pines are still the east of Poughkeepsie, and some dominant tree species. 80 miles north of Fig. 3. Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848). A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill (near the New York–Connecticut Mountains, Morning, 1844. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn TO VISIT Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 52.16 border). Durand’s view can be The trailhead to the Escarpment found by driving south on Rt. 22 Trail can be reached from the The work of later painters such as from the village of Dover Plains. North-South Lake Public Camp- Sanford Gifford, Jasper Cropsey, Turn left on Rt. 6, and turn right ground. From the parking lot at and Jervis McEntee promoted (uphill) on Road. After the beach at North Lake, there more interest in this site, and today passing the last house, look back is also a short trail leading up to the North Mountain trails are the to the right, toward the northwest. Pine Orchard, where a trail marker most popular in the North-South indicates the former site of the Lake area, primarily for the Catskill Mountain House. The view magnificent panoramic view of from this vantage point is not to be the Hudson River Valley and the missed. two lakes reached from Bear’s Den and other spots along the Escarpment Trail. Owing to its Shandaken Mountains TO VISIT Although the area around Kaaterskill The towns surrounding the Ashokan Clove was undoubtedly the most Reservoir are located on Rts. 28 famous in the Catskill region, and 28A, west of the Kingston exit Durand did not restrict his travels (exit 19) from I-87. From Haines to the clove vicinity. He also visited Falls, take Rt. 23A west to Rt. 214, the towns of Marbletown, Olive, to Rt. 28 east and then Rt. 28A. Shandaken, and Shokan in the 1840s and early 1850s, making Recommended Reading numerous sketches that he later Raymond Beecher. Kaaterskill turned into paintings, including Clove: Where Nature Met Art. Clearing Up (fig. 6). Hensonville, N.Y.: Press, 2004. The exact site of Clearing Up has not been documented, but it may Russell Dunn. Catskill Region be the view from the town of Olive Waterfall Guide: Cool Cascades of looking south and west toward the the Catskills and Shawangunks. town of Shandaken and the Catskill Hensonville, N.Y.: Black Dome High Peaks. The valley in the fore- Press, 2004. ground, where the Bush Kill joins , is now the Ashokan Robert A. Gildersleeve. Catskill Reservoir. The term “Shandaken Mountain House Trail Guide: In Fig. 6. Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886). Clearing Up, 1854. Oil on canvas. Collection of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore Mountains” is no longer in use; it the Footsteps of the Hudson River once referred to the inland moun- School. Hensonville, N.Y.: Black tains, including Slide, Wittenberg, Dome Press, 2005. and Cornell, which are now part of the Catskills. Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape is made possible by Other views of the Shandaken the Henry Luce Foundation. Mountains in the exhibition include Additional generous support is provided the paintings Shandaken, Ulster by Cheryl and Blair Effron, Barbara G. County, New York, 1854 (possibly Fleischman and Martha J. Fleischman, the a view from Gilder Foundation, and the Brooklyn Museum American Art Council. from Olive or Marbletown), and View of the Shandaken Mountains, This guide was written by Margaret Stenz, 1853 (which is very similar to Clear- Curatorial Research Associate. ing Up).