Walton so expensively celebrates.”Ī week after the sale of “Kindred Spirits,” a front-page article in the Times questioned the decision by the New York City Opera to allow “Atsushi Yamada, a one-time Sony salaryman without conservatory training or a single English-language review to his name” to conduct the company in a tour of Japan for which Yamada helped raise nearly $2 million from Japanese businesses. “A grand inherent irony” of the sale, CBS correspondent Morley Safer added a few days later, is that “all that Wal-Mart money was gleaned from the systematic destruction of the very American landscape Ms. The painting certainly has New York all over it: In it, the (New York) painter Thomas Cole stands on a ledge with the (New York) poet William Cullen Bryant in the (New York) Catskills. Francis Morrone in the New York Sun called it "New York's most egregious act of self-desecration since the demolition of Pennsylvania Station," Michael Thomas in the NY Observer deemed it a "sorry affair," a "scandal", a "dirty deed," and an example of "institutional philistinism" to the library's explanation that the sale was needed to raise funds for book and manuscript acquisition, he wrote: "I find the arithmetic unpersuasive." New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman condemned the sale in three separate articles (so far), labelling the painting “a civic landmark,” and arguing, with a kind of eloquently restrained anger, that it should at least have been kept in New York. The daughter of the founder of Wal-Mart, Alice Walton, bought "Kindred Spirits" this month reportedly for at least $35 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting by an American artist - though, since it was bought at a "silent auction" at Sotheby's, the parties involved are denying the public even the right to be told what the precise purchase price was, much less have any say in the disposition of what we previously were told was a public treasure.Īrt-lovers have reacted with outrage. Will it become Wal-Art? Are the two marble lions next? Shipping: Most prints are processed and shipped within 2-7 business days.What would the lions in front of the New York Public Library fetch at auction? This seems a reasonable question, given that the New York Public Library recently sold off one of the most celebrated paintings in the city, “Kindred Spirits” by Asher Durand - hanging for decades in the main library, now being shipped, astonishingly, to Bentonville, Arkansas, hometown of Wal-Mart. That's why we have a 100% satisfaction guarantee and fair 15 day return policy. ![]() Return Policy: We understand that it's a daunting task purchasing art online. ![]() Accompanied by white envelopes.ĭigital Download: Low or high resolution digital file emailed directly to you via FTP link within 24 hours. Note cards: Digitally offset printed on folded bright white, 5 x 7 inch smooth and heavy paper. Poster prints: Satin finish paper for informal applications such as classrooms or dorms. Order as a framed paper print and it arrives ready to hang! Paper prints: Heavy, bright white, matte paper with a slight "cold pressed" texture. Order canvas rolled, classic stretched (requires framing), gallery wrapped (arrives ready to hang without a frame) or as a framed canvas print in one of our exquisite mouldings. The landscape scene itself is fictional - it brings together scenes from several areas around the mountains and presents them as one amazing site.Įxplore more of our Asher Brown Durand collection.Ĭanvas prints: The most accurate option to represent an oil painting. This magnificent painting displays unmatched beauty of Catskill Mountains of New York state. Kindred Spirits was sold by the New York Public Library to Alice Walton, better known as Wal-Mart heiress, at a private auction in 2005. The piece remained in the Bryant family until 1904 when it was donated to the New York Public Library. The Kindred Spirits was commissioned by Jonathan Sturges who later gave gave the painting to Bryant. ![]() He was not only Durand’s close friend, but also a mentor. Cole died suddenly just a year before The Kindred Spirits was finished. Charming, naturalistic painting, known as Durand's best work, shows two of his friends, English born landscape painter Thomas Cole, who died in 1848, and poet William Cullen Bryant. ![]() The Kindred Spirits (1849, oil on canvas) is a famous painting by Asher Brown Durand, a member of the Hudson River School of painters.
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