Post by ezram02 on May 18, 2008 22:51:53 GMT -5
Asher Durand's "Kindred Spirits"
Though transcendentalism has several key components, its fundamental purpose is to enable people to rise above societal standards and to enjoy their own original relationships with the universe, ultimately leading to an improved understanding of the world. In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson criticizes society’s love “not [of] realities and creators, but [of] names and customs,” thereby calling for nonconformity (Self-Reliance 21). Conforming to tradition makes a person “a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking,” writes Emerson in “The American Scholar;” a person should ideally be “Man Thinking,” an independent individual with an active soul (The American Scholar 2). The only way to truly become Man Thinking and to form an original connection with the world is to break away from old habits and traditions, retreating into nature to find one’s true self. Henry David Thoreau, in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” emphasizes the simplicity and innocence of nature’s perfection, which gives an individual the opportunity to “renew thyself completely each day” (Thoreau 64). Only by embracing and learning from nature can people learn to live deliberately by their own laws, rather than passively by those imposed by the world. Transcendentalism promotes the idea that by finding one’s self, an individual discovers the universal soul that encompasses humanity, nature, and God. Emerson states in “The Over-Soul” that once a person embraces his or her own soul, “he will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity” connected to all living things (The Over-Soul 64). Through inward reflection and retreat into the natural world, people will learn to think for themselves and learn to live in harmony with God, nature, and their fellow human beings.
No Hudson River School painting reflects transcendentalism’s beliefs better than Asher Durand’s “Kindred Spirits,” both because of the painting’s focus on retreating from society into nature and because of its portrayal of the universal soul. Withdrawn into nature, the two men depicted are standing at the end of a path, overlooking a grand valley with beautiful hills, trees, and waterfalls. Only in the “tranquil landscape” can a person behold something “as beautiful as his own nature,” states Emerson in his essay “Nature” (Nature 2). Likewise, the vast expanse of nature that stretches out interminably before the men symbolizes the beauty and endless possibility of their own thoughts unconstrained by society, while the end of the path represents the edge of society’s control over the men’s thoughts and actions. As they leave the civilized world and withdraw into solitude, they discard the laws of government and embrace the laws of nature. Even though there are two of them, they are still in complete solitude because solitude relies more on mindset than on physical isolation; in his essay “Solitude,” Thoreau states that it “is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows,” but rather by the ability to remain in solitude, even in the presence of others (Thoreau 95). Each man in the painting has left society behind and is now looking to nature to transform him from a thinking man to Man Thinking.
In addition to focusing on retreating from the modern world, Durand’s “Kindred Spirits” captures the transcendentalist idea of the universal soul. The three components of the universal soul – humanity, nature, and God – are all illustrated in the painting. The depiction of two men, each a companion to the other, shows that, even in solitude, all people are connected to each other as part of the Over-Soul. The path on which the men stand protrudes into the valley so that nature surrounds them in all directions. Durand viewed nature as the “visible works of God,” so his landscape represents God’s perfection in addition to nature’s beauty. The title of the work, “Kindred Spirits,” epitomizes the concept of the universal soul; it applies not only to the spirits of the two men, but also to God and nature, acknowledging kinship of the three components. Durand’s painting, like the works of Emerson and Thoreau, emphasizes the necessity of embracing nature and finding within it the universal soul.
www.artchive.com/artchive/d/durand/durand_kindred.jpg
Though transcendentalism has several key components, its fundamental purpose is to enable people to rise above societal standards and to enjoy their own original relationships with the universe, ultimately leading to an improved understanding of the world. In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson criticizes society’s love “not [of] realities and creators, but [of] names and customs,” thereby calling for nonconformity (Self-Reliance 21). Conforming to tradition makes a person “a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men’s thinking,” writes Emerson in “The American Scholar;” a person should ideally be “Man Thinking,” an independent individual with an active soul (The American Scholar 2). The only way to truly become Man Thinking and to form an original connection with the world is to break away from old habits and traditions, retreating into nature to find one’s true self. Henry David Thoreau, in his essay “Where I Lived and What I Lived For,” emphasizes the simplicity and innocence of nature’s perfection, which gives an individual the opportunity to “renew thyself completely each day” (Thoreau 64). Only by embracing and learning from nature can people learn to live deliberately by their own laws, rather than passively by those imposed by the world. Transcendentalism promotes the idea that by finding one’s self, an individual discovers the universal soul that encompasses humanity, nature, and God. Emerson states in “The Over-Soul” that once a person embraces his or her own soul, “he will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity” connected to all living things (The Over-Soul 64). Through inward reflection and retreat into the natural world, people will learn to think for themselves and learn to live in harmony with God, nature, and their fellow human beings.
No Hudson River School painting reflects transcendentalism’s beliefs better than Asher Durand’s “Kindred Spirits,” both because of the painting’s focus on retreating from society into nature and because of its portrayal of the universal soul. Withdrawn into nature, the two men depicted are standing at the end of a path, overlooking a grand valley with beautiful hills, trees, and waterfalls. Only in the “tranquil landscape” can a person behold something “as beautiful as his own nature,” states Emerson in his essay “Nature” (Nature 2). Likewise, the vast expanse of nature that stretches out interminably before the men symbolizes the beauty and endless possibility of their own thoughts unconstrained by society, while the end of the path represents the edge of society’s control over the men’s thoughts and actions. As they leave the civilized world and withdraw into solitude, they discard the laws of government and embrace the laws of nature. Even though there are two of them, they are still in complete solitude because solitude relies more on mindset than on physical isolation; in his essay “Solitude,” Thoreau states that it “is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows,” but rather by the ability to remain in solitude, even in the presence of others (Thoreau 95). Each man in the painting has left society behind and is now looking to nature to transform him from a thinking man to Man Thinking.
In addition to focusing on retreating from the modern world, Durand’s “Kindred Spirits” captures the transcendentalist idea of the universal soul. The three components of the universal soul – humanity, nature, and God – are all illustrated in the painting. The depiction of two men, each a companion to the other, shows that, even in solitude, all people are connected to each other as part of the Over-Soul. The path on which the men stand protrudes into the valley so that nature surrounds them in all directions. Durand viewed nature as the “visible works of God,” so his landscape represents God’s perfection in addition to nature’s beauty. The title of the work, “Kindred Spirits,” epitomizes the concept of the universal soul; it applies not only to the spirits of the two men, but also to God and nature, acknowledging kinship of the three components. Durand’s painting, like the works of Emerson and Thoreau, emphasizes the necessity of embracing nature and finding within it the universal soul.
www.artchive.com/artchive/d/durand/durand_kindred.jpg