Durand, Asher B.

Durand, Asher B. (Brown) (1796–1886) painter, engraver; born in Maplewood (then Jefferson Village), N.J. He was an engraving apprentice (1812), and later a partner (1817) of Peter Maverick, and engraved banknotes and received important commissions, such as the engraving of John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence (1820). After 1835 he devoted himself to portraits, figure studies and, after study in Europe (1840–41), to landscapes. He was a founder of the Hudson River School and the National Academy of Design (1826). His most famous work is Kindred Spirits (1800), in which his two friends, Thomas Cole and the poet William Cullen Bryant, survey a romantic landscape.