John Frederick Kensett

American, 1816 - 1872

Death-PlaceNew York, NY

Birth-PlaceCheshire, CT

BiographyJohn Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)

A native of Cheshire, Connecticut, John Frederick Kensett was born into a family that valued learning and the arts. His mother, Elizabeth Daggett, was a granddaughter of Yale College president Naphtali Daggett, and his father and uncle were both highly skilled and widely respected engravers. Kensett studied briefly at the Cheshire Episcopal Academy and, under the tutelage of his father and uncle, acquired the engraving skills that formed the basis of his refined draftsmanship. The engraver's disciplined study of tonal modulation was a source of his extraordinary, if not innovative, exploration of subtle color values in the paintings he produced as a mature artist. Kensett became both an artistic and spiritual leader among the generation of landscape painters known as the Hudson River School, who developed America's first indigenous painting style.

For twelve years Kensett worked as an engraver in New Haven, New York, and Albany. In 1840 he embarked for study abroad in the company of three other engravers turned artists: Asher B. Durand, John Casilear, and Thomas Rossiter. Kensett spent seven years in Europe, studying the paintings of Claude Lorrain, Canaletto, and Meindert Hobbema, and other Old Masters. He also began his lifelong practice of sketching from nature. His travels took him from London, to Paris, to Rome.

In 1848 Kensett exhibited “The Shrine--A Scene in Italy” (private collection) at the National Academy of Design in New York. The painting attracted wide critical acclaim and was purchased by a private collector, leading to Kensett’s election as an associate of the academy. His reputation as one of the finest American landscape painters was made. Following the death of Thomas Cole in 1848, Kensett and Durand became the leaders of the Hudson River School and Kensett's star in the American artistic and intellectual community rose dramatically. He painted landmark works in the Hudson River School genre (“The White Mountains--From North Conway” 1851; Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Mass.) and was an originator of the light-enshrined mode now known as Luminism (“Beacon Rock, Newport Harbor” [1857; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]).

For twenty-five years, until his death in 1872, Kensett was a regular participant in major national and international exhibitions. He was a central figure at the National Academy of Design and at the American Artists Fund Society and was an original member of the Century Association and a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bibliography:
Ellen H. Johnson, "Kensett Revisited," “Art Quarterly 20” (spring 1957): 71-92; John K. Howat, “John F. Kensett”, exhib. cat. (New York: American Federation of Arts, 1968); John Paul Driscoll, “John F. Kensett Drawings”, exhib. cat. (State College, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University, Palmer Museum of Art, 1978); John Paul Driscoll and John K. Howat, “John Frederick Kensett, An American Master,” exhib. cat. (New York: Worcester Art Museum, 1985).
“Rondout Creek”, 1862
Oil on canvas, 15 x 24 in. (38.1 x 61 cm)
Signed and dated (lower left): “J.F.K.'62” [monogrammed initials]
Charles F. Smith Fund (1945.10)

There are two distinct overlapping phases in Kensett's mature career. The first dates essentially from 1847 to 1862 and accounts for work done in the Claudian picturesque Hudson River School tradition espoused by Thomas Cole and, more particularly, by Asher B. Durand. The second phase dates from about 1854 until Kensett’s death in 1872 and is characterized by a light-enshrined simplification of form, color, and design that we now equate with Luminism. “Rondout Creek” dates from an 1862 summer sketching expedition that took Kensett up the Hudson River from his Manhattan studio to Nyack, Kingston, Catskill, and the Lake Saranac area of the Adirondacks. The painting embodies the technical and stylistic elements of Kensett's first, or Hudson River, phase. The subject is a small stream flowing out of the Catskill Mountains into the Hudson River just below New York state's historic first capital at Kingston. The stream's wild picturesque character and proximity to Cole's house in the nearby village of Catskill made it a favorite subject for artists. Kensett's views of Rondout Creek are, however, rare—not one was included in his 1873 memorial exhibition and sale of more than five hundred works.

“Rondout Creek” expresses the Hudson River School concept that nature had the power to convey and inspire religious, philosophical, didactic, and therapeutic ideals. Kensett's deliberate choice of subject--a tranquil pool in the midst of cool woodlands enveloped in limpid light--is a direct manifestation of his belief in landscape's moral import. He believed in the picturesque notion of nature's tranquillity and of a consonant relationship between nature and man. He conveyed this idea in “Rondout Creek” through a carefully conceived and balanced compositional design, beautifully modulated tonal palette, and subtly orchestrated light. These elements created for the viewer a direct and intimate entry into the scene as well as a sense of the peace and harmony that inspired the artist. The expressive draftsmanship evident in the delineation of the foreground trees and the somewhat thicker impasto of the two trunks and sky gently animates the composition. The silvery gray of the craggy lichen-marked rocks is a Kensett hallmark, as is the desiccated log in the foreground that conveyed an iconographically potent message about the cyclical nature of life to the mid-nineteenth-century viewer. Also typical of Kensett is the inclusion of rather anecdotal cows.

The canvas is a standard size in Kensett's work, one that he found compatible for paintings done in his New York studio and for those done directly from nature. “Rondout Creek” does not have the studied perfection expected in a studio painting of this period. Rather, the brushwork conveys a sense of immediacy and spontaneity and the palette and light effects impart a sense of intimacy that suggest the work was executed on the site.

JD

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