ASHER BROWN DURAND (1796-1886)

New York dry goods merchant and well-known art patron Luman Reed played a critical role in the careers of Hudson River School masters Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand. He was instrumental in steering Durand away from engraving and towards painting and, in the 1830s, commissioned the artist to paint a series of all seven American presidents. In addition to the present example, there are four known portraits of Luman Reed by Durand. The first was painted in 1835 for Reed's business partner Jonathan Sturges, which is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. The other versions are an 1835 portrait in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, an 1844 version owned by the New York Historical Society, New York, and a circa 1835 version in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland.