Kindred Spirits
Kindred Spirits (1849) is a painting by the Hudson River School painter Asher Durand. It depicts the previously deceased painter Thomas Cole and his friend poet William Cullen Bryant in the Catskill Mountains. The landscape, which combines geographical features like Fawns Leap [1] in Kaaterksill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaaterskill Falls, is not a literal record of a particular site but an idealized memory of Thomas Cole's discovery of the region more than twenty years prior to the canvas's execution. The painting is currently held in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas[1]
The painting was commissioned by New York art collector Jonathan Sturges as a gift to Bryant in appreciation of his eulogy of Cole. Its title was inspired by John Keats' "Sonnet to Solitude". Bryant's daughter Julia donated the painting to the New York Public Library in 1904. In 2005, it was sold at auction to Walmart heiress Alice Walton for $35 million, a record for a painting by an American artist. The Library was criticized for "jettisoning part of the city's cultural patrimony", but the Library defended its move stating it needed the money for its endowment fund.[2] The painting was on display at the National Gallery of Art between 2005 and 2007.
[edit] In popular culture
- In his book A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, Bill Bryson describes his love for the painting and how he would love to jump into the scene depicted.
[edit] References
- ^ "Asher B. Durand's Kindred Spirits". National Gallery of Art. http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/durandinfo.shtm. Retrieved 2011-02-23.
