Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) began his long career in the Hudson River School under the guidance of his mentor, Thomas Cole (1801-1848). Influenced by the death of Cole in 1848 and other factors, Durand turned to the William Cullen Bryant poem, "Thanatopsis." Durand's Landscape-Scene from 'Thanatopsis,' an expansive allegory with a farmer and a funeral in the foreground illuminated by a sunrise, offers reassurance with its vision of nature's paradisiacal beauty. The Christianized sublimity of this allegorical Durand painting reveals a hopeful vision for a heavenly paradise. This essay explores the significance of Durand's 1850 painting in conjunction with Bryant's "Thanatopsis," a study Durand composed, Classical Landscape (Imaginary Landscape c. 1850), his 1855 Letters on Landscape Painting, as well as Durand's 1862 repainting of the canvas.