Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas houses a myriad of recognizable works; among those is Asher B. Durand’s Kindred Spirits. Situated in the Colonial to Late 19th Century Collection adjacent to a work by the subject of the painting, Thomas Cole, Kindred Spirits depicts Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant, his close friend, in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Alice Walton purchased Kindred Spirits for $35 million in 2005 from the New York Public Library which caused some controversy since the work is considered “a quintessentially New York painting” (Rose) and it would mean moving a painting of the New York Catskills to the Ozarks in Arkansas. However, the move was not in vain because Kindred…show more content… Durand was very adamant about traveling out into nature to capture the full picture of his surroundings (DeBerry), as was Cole, which is represented in Durand’s painting of Cole. He places Cole in the middle of many different elements of nature (Figure 3). In the picturesque surroundings, the viewer sees Cole taking in his surroundings with Bryant. Durand has also expertly placed the sunrise in the background as a symbol of new hope and restored faith. To me, the sunrise in the background represents a new beginning for Cole and Durand. Although Thomas Cole was no longer present in the physical world, he had begun a new journey in death, for death is not the end but a new beginning just like a sunrise. The night is finished, a new day is dawning, and the night is always darkest before the dawn. I think that Durand realized this and attempted to emulate that in his painting; his friend no longer suffered, and although it was hard for him now, he knew that Cole was in a better place and that he would wish for Durand to continue. Not only did this panting mark a new beginning in that regard with Durand, but he also began anew as the head of the Hudson River School and as the top American landscape painter at the
