'Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and the American Landscape'This major new volume revisits for the first time in 30 years the world and the works of Asher B. Durand (1796 1886), one of 19th century Americas most important artists. Durand was a central figure, both as an artist and as the major spokesman for the American landscape school, and was the acknowledged dean of American landscape painting from his election as president of the National Academy of Design in 1845 until his death at the age of ninety.