# Study of Rocks in Pearson's Ravine

- By: Asher Brown Durand (American, 1796–1886)
- Date: Mid–1850s
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 61 × 45.7 cm (24 × 18 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/220730)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/9223818e-8eb8-740c-28ba-7c4c75acc3d5/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0