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Asher B. Durand
Dover Plain, Dutchess County, New York
1848
oil
42 1/2 x 60 1/2 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Thomas M. Evans and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
In this gently lit, pastoral landscape, cows graze near a party of berry-pickers who have climbed a cluster of boulders. The panoramic view reveals distant fields, cultivated and bounded by rows of trees and forested areas. The standing figure, surveying the calm and peaceful vista, represents the optimistic future for the citizenry at mid-century.