Study of Rocks in Pearson's Ravine

Asher B. Durand was a prominent figure of the Hudson River School who contributed to the rise of American landscape painting in the 1840s and 1850s. His Study of Rocks in Pearson’s Ravine depicts a fragment of forested terrain in the Delaware River Valley in New Jersey. The composition is an example of Durand’s intense investigation of nature, executed outdoors and with a high degree of finish and detail. The artist meticulously rendered the moss-covered stone, flowering groundcover, and botanical variety. Such small-scale canvases represent some of the earliest exhibited plein air (outdoor) painting in the United States.