Rip Van Winkle c. 1840

Asher Brown Durand’s delicate pencil sketch captures Washington Irving’s character Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle, the hen-pecked husband, became an icon of American identity in the early 19th century, a figure who could sleep through the American Revolution only to wake up and exercise his newfound freedom in a changed world. As a folktale, the story of Rip Van Winkle touches on themes of identity, change, and nostalgia in a rapidly evolving nation. Look at how Durand portrays Rip’s disheveled appearance, suggesting a life outside societal norms. Durand offers us an idyllic view of nature as an escape from domestic and social expectations. In this telling, nature becomes a space where one can shed the burdens of identity and history. Consider how Durand, living in a period of significant social and political transformation, taps into a longing for a simpler past, even as the figure of Rip invites us to consider what it means to awaken to a new reality.