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The mighty works of the Venetian painters and the deep tones of Rembrandt strongly affected him. For a while after his return to New York in '41, he busied himself in finishing pictures begun or sketched abroad. In the exhibition of '42 appeared "Il Pappagallo, a Lady with a Parrot," of a rich Venetian hue. Also a number of Roman heads, two or three Swiss landscapes, a "Cottage on Lake Thun," a "View at Stratford on Avon," and soon after several other European landscapes.

European images were still hovering in his brain. There was danger that the wild freshness of our American forests, lakes, and mountains might lose their hold on his heart. But no. His sound sense, the free air of his happy out-door studies, his undying love of country, soon resumed the sway of a first love, and now began anew that series of true American landscape, which for many years delighted the eyes of all true lovers of out scenery and our art, and gave Durand that well-earned place he holds among the best artists of America.

Two important landscapes, called "The Close of a Sultry Day," and "An Old Man's Reminiscences," the latter now in Albany, were among the first to indicate the return of his early feeling, with greatly increased knowledge and power.

In 1846 he won great applause by his exhibit of a large upright view from the edge of a wood, painted for A. M. Cozzens, and now a striking ornament in the collection of Mr. Morris K. Jesup. I remember well how the groups of artists gathered in front of it on varnishing day at the Academy, warmly discussing its merits and expressing their admiration.

" An Old Man's Lesson " soon followed, and "Dover Plains," in which he showed his skill in far-stretching meadows and distant hills enveloped in silvery light.

One of the best works of that period, exhibited in '49, was a cascade in a rocky mountain in which he introduced Bryant and Cole standing on a foreground rock enjoying the scene. This picture, called "Kindred Spirits," was painted for presentation to Bryant, and is in possession of the poet's daughter, Miss Julia Bryant.

One of his favorite compositions, called "Lake Hamlet," was painted for Gov. Hamilton Fish, and Mr. Walters, of Baltimore, possesses one of Durand's masterpieces., a large upright forest scene, truthfully and vigorously executed.

Hardly any of his pictures have been more admired and enjoyed than the two somewhat similar ones of "The Primæval Forest," painted for his friend and

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