Asher Durand (1796-1886) lived his whole life in New Jersey. He was an engraver and a Hudson River School landscape artist, best known for his carefully detailed, life-like oil paintings. Kindred Spirits, his most popular piece, depicts his artist friend Thomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant in the Catskill Mountains. A number of Durand's paintings are on display at the Mead Art Museum of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts.