  About the Artwork
  
  
  Water flows rapidly down a mountain stream. On the banks, shattered tree trunks suggest the recent passage of a violent storm or a spring flood. But not all changes happen so quickly, a fact of nature suggested by many of the rocks in the stream which have been smoothed by thousands of years of flowing water. In the distance, the mountain seems unchanging and serene, although we know that it too changes over the vast sweep of geological time. 




The streambed and bending tree limbs direct the viewer’s attention to Monument Mountain, one of the highest peaks in western Massachusetts. While working on this painting, Asher B. Durand was probably thinking of William Cullen Bryant’s then-famous poem Monument Mountain (1824), which begins by advising a trip to the area for anyone “who wouldst see the lovely and the wild / mingled in harmony on Nature’s face.” In the painting as in the poem, Nature is both wild and lovely, ever changing and eternal.
  
  
  Title
  Monument Mountain, Berkshires
  
  
  Artwork Date
  probably 1850
  
  Artist
  Asher Brown Durand
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1796 - 1886
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 28 × 42 inches (71.1 × 106.7 cm)
  Framed: 43 1/4 × 57 5/8 × 6 3/8 inches (109.9 × 146.4 × 16.2 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  39.6
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
