Kindred Spirits. Kindred Spirits is a painting by Asher Brown Durand, a member of the Hudson River School of painters.
It depicts the painter Thomas Cole, who had died in 1848, and his friend, the poet William Cullen Bryant, in the Catskill Mountains. The landscape painting, which combines geographical features in Kaaterskill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaaterskill Falls, is not a literal depiction of American geography.
Rather, it is an idealized memory of Cole's discovery of the region more than twenty years prior, his friendship with Bryant, and his ideas about American nature. The painting was commissioned by New York art collector and advocate Jonathan Sturges as a gift to Bryant who in May 1848 had presented a eulogy for the painter Cole.
Sturges explained the gift by writing: Soon after you delivered your oration in the life and death of our lamented friend Cole, I requested Mr. Durand to paint a picture in which he should associate our departed friend and yourself as kindred spirits. I hope that you will accept the picture from me as a token of gratitude for the labor of love performed on that occasion., Letter from Sturges to Bryant Within days of receiving the painting, Bryant wrote thank you notes to both Sturges and Durant expressing his praise for the work.
Bryant described his first impression of the gift to Durand, writing, I was more delighted with it than I can express,
It depicts the painter Thomas Cole, who had died in 1848, and his friend, the poet William Cullen Bryant, in the Catskill Mountains. The landscape painting, which combines geographical features in Kaaterskill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaaterskill Falls, is not a literal depiction of American geography.
Rather, it is an idealized memory of Cole's discovery of the region more than twenty years prior, his friendship with Bryant, and his ideas about American nature. The painting was commissioned by New York art collector and advocate Jonathan Sturges as a gift to Bryant who in May 1848 had presented a eulogy for the painter Cole.
Sturges explained the gift by writing: Soon after you delivered your oration in the life and death of our lamented friend Cole, I requested Mr. Durand to paint a picture in which he should associate our departed friend and yourself as kindred spirits. I hope that you will accept the picture from me as a token of gratitude for the labor of love performed on that occasion., Letter from Sturges to Bryant Within days of receiving the painting, Bryant wrote thank you notes to both Sturges and Durant expressing his praise for the work.
Bryant described his first impression of the gift to Durand, writing, I was more delighted with it than I can express,
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