Where is Kindred Spirits?

This iconic painting is at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was sold by the New York Public Library in 2005 for $35 million.

Who are the two figures in Kindred Spirits?

Durand painted his friend Thomas Cole (left) and poet William Cullen Bryant contemplating nature in the Catskills.

What is the Hudson River School?

America's first major art movement, celebrating the wilderness as spiritual sanctuary. Cole founded it; Durand continued his vision.

Where to See Kindred Spirits: National Gallery of Art

Kindred Spirits

by Asher Brown Durand, 1849

MediumOil Canvas

Year: 1849
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 111.8 × 91.4 cm (44 × 36 in)

Where to See It

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

Permanently housed

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The Artist

Asher Brown Durand

1796–1886

American

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American artist Asher Brown Durand painted this tribute to his friend Thomas Cole after Cole's death in 1848. It shows Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant standing on a rocky ledge in the Catskill Mountains, communing with nature.

The painting embodies the philosophy of the Hudson River School: the American wilderness as a spiritual sanctuary, and artists as priests who interpret its meaning. The title comes from a Keats sonnet about the meeting of sympathetic souls.

Long owned by the New York Public Library, the painting was controversially sold in 2005. It now hangs at Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas.

More by Asher Brown Durand

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The Indian's Vespers

Asher Brown Durand

White House, Washington, DC, Washington, D.C.

Kindred Spirits