The painting shows Hudson River School artist, Thomas Cole chatting with naturalist and poet William Cullen Bryant.
ART
Closely Looking
at “Kindred Spirits”
by Asher Brown Durand
Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886) painted “Kindred Spirits” in 1849. As stated in the wall plaque beside the painting:
“Kindred Spirits” is a memorial to the artist Thomas Cole, who died in 1848. Cole stands with a sketchbook and flute or recorder on an outcropping overlooking a vast valley. He chats with William Cullen Bryant, a poet whose work often describes the same picturesque scenery featured in paintings by Cole, Durand, and other Hudson River School artists.
Despite the almost scientific rendering of moss-covered trees and rocks, the landscape pictured does not depict a specific location. It is a combination of key sites Cole had painted in the Catskill Mountains. In addition, Cole’s presence in the scene is another clue that this is an imagined landscape as if it existed in a heavenly or spiritual realm. For many, including Cole, landscapes provided spaces in which to commune with God and the divine.
The blasted tree in the foreground (as opposed to a cut tree) symbolized the sublime power of nature and celebrated America’s most valuable asset – the wilderness. This tree is also an emblem of Cole and his truncated life (he was only 47 years old when he died of pneumonia).
(Source: Photos taken with permission at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art)
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VIDEO
Curator Mindy Besaw guides us through the painting, Kindred Spirits.
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