For release January
10,
2011
CONTACT: Tracy Greene at
817.989.5067
E-mail:
tracy.greene@cartermuseum.org
Or
Jessica Poole at
817.989.5065
E-mail:
jessica.poole@cartermuseum.org
**High-resolution
image available upon
request**
Landmark
American Masterpiece on View at Amon Carter beginning in
February
FORT WORTH,
Texas—One of the most
treasured paintings in American
art,
Kindred Spirits (1849) by Asher B. Durand, will be on view at the Amon
Carter Museum of American Art this spring. The painting, on loan from the
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, Ark.), will hang
concurrently with the museum’s
special
exhibition, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision,
from February 26–June 19, 2011. Admission is free to the museum and the
special
exhibition.
Beginning in the
1820s, the American landscape became a significant theme for artists who
traveled up the Hudson River from New York City to sketch
the
rugged mountains and tranquil valleys along its banks. With the noted landscape
painter Thomas Cole as their inspirational leader, these artists gave impetus to
the first self-consciously “American” vision for landscape painting,
a movement that would
become
known as the Hudson River
School.
In
Kindred Spirits, Durand, a Hudson River School artist, depicts Cole with
his close friend and colleague William Cullen Bryant, the esteemed poet and
editor. The painting was commissioned
by
art patron Jonathan Sturges as a tribute to Cole
following his death in 1848 at age 47. Invoking John
Keats’
Sonnet VII, Durand portrays Cole and Bryant together as “kindred
spirits” in the landscape. After the painting was complete, Sturges gifted
the work to
Bryant.
In 1904,
Bryant’s daughter Julia
gave
Kindred Spirits to the New York Public Library in Manhattan, where it
hung on public view for more than a century before being deaccessioned and
acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American
Art.
“The
painting is glorious,” says Chris Crosman, chief curator at Crystal
Bridges. “While our museum is under construction, we are
thrilled
that audiences can view the masterpiece in the Amon Carter’s
galleries.”
The timing
also coincides with the Amon Carter’s 50th Anniversary
year.
“How fitting
that we can show such an iconic American painting during a milestone year for
the museum,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at
the Amon Carter.
“We are grateful to Crystal Bridges for loaning us the work, which
symbolizes our mutual dedication to presenting masterpieces of American art
to
audiences who may otherwise never have the opportunity to enjoy them.”
Additional
works by Hudson River School artists, such as
Cole,
Frederic
Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey and George Inness, are on view in the Amon
Carter’s permanent collection throughout the
year.
End
Jessica
Poole
PR
and Marketing
Assistant
Amon
Carter Museum of American
Art
3501
Camp Bowie Blvd., Ft. Worth, TX
76107
t.
817.989.5065
f.817.665.4331
http://www.cartermuseum.org