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28 called "Sabbath Bell," painted for Gouverneur Kemble, of Cold Spring. It was a lovely scene near a sequestered village. Over the still water and through the old elms the sunlight streamed cheerily; a holy calm seemed to pervade the air; a few villagers were on their way to church, and one could fancy he heard the bells sounding softly through the luminous atmosphere. Durand had been a pioneer in engraving; he was now a pioneer in another very important branch of study, viz., that of painting carefully finished studies directly from nature out-of-doors. Before his day our landscape painters had usually made only pencil drawings or, at most, slight water-color memoranda of the scenes they intended to paint, aiding the memory by writing on the drawing hints of the color and effect. Cole, to be sure, lived at Catskill, in full view of magnificent scenery, and was endowed with a wonderful memory, so that he gave an astonishing look of exact truth to many of his pictures of American scenery, but he rarely, if at all, up to that period, painted his studies in the open air. Durand went directly to the fountain-head, and began the practice of faithful transcripts of "bits" for use in his studio, and the indefatigable patience and the sustained ardor with which he painted these 29 studies not only told on his elaborate works, but proved a contagious influence, since followed by most of our artists, to the inestimable advantage of the great landscape school of our country. In 1840 Durand went to Europe in company with Casilear, Kensett, and Rossiter. He remained abroad a year, visiting London, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy. As is frequently the case at the first acquaintance with the old masters, there was some disappointment. At the National Gallery in London he saw Claude's pictures for the first time. He wrote: "They do not astonish me, although there are parts in some of them of surpassing beauty. There is generally a cold green and blue appearance about them, and no particularly striking effects in color or light and shade. Still, on careful examination, they evince that knowledge of nature for which Claude is celebrated, particularly in atmosphere, the character and softness of foliage, and more especially in water, as seen in some of his seaport subjects. On the whole," he said, "I am somewhat disappointed in Claude. I see but two or three of his works which meet my expectations, but," he adds, "to me these alone are worth a passage across the Atlantic." In London he met Leslie and Wilkie, then at the the zenith of their fame. He describes
Transcription Notes:
evince - reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling)