John Frederick Kensett

(1816-1872)

View of Mount Chocorua 9 1/4 x 16 1/8 in. (23.5 x 41 cm.)

Footnotes

Provenance
John William Casilear (1811-1893), New York, acquired from the artist.
Estate of the above, 1893.
(probably) Sale, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, New York, March 31-April 1, 1897, sold by the above.
Robert Morrison Olyphant (1824-1918), New York.
Private collection, great-grandson of the above, by descent from the above.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, acquired from the above, September 1995.
Acquired from the above by the late owner, December 29, 1995.

John Frederick Kensett, along with fellow artists of the Hudson River School, developed a reputation for Luminism, a style of landscape painting often characterized by intricate and delicate depictions of light, weather, and atmospheric conditions through aerial perspectives.

View of Mt. Chocorua exemplifies Kensett's Luminist style and depicts the White Mountains region in New Hampshire that he returned to for inspiration for many years. The size of this work is a clear indication that Kensett would have painted this work right on the spot as the sun was setting, a technique that would later be referred to en plein air, painted on the spot, in the open air. Many of the Hudson River school artists would paint these scenes in real time and later recreate them in the studio on a larger scale. To be witness to such a dramatic moment must have been awe inspiring to the artist. Kensett once wrote "I long to get amid the scenery of my own country for it abounds with the picturesque, the grand, and the beautiful – to revel among the striking scenes which a bountiful hand has spread over its wide-extended and almost boundless territory." (John Kensett, December 16, 1844, as quoted in J.P. Driscoll, J.K. Howat, John Frederick Kensett: An American Master, 1985, p. 62).

Like his fellow Hudson River School painter Asher B. Durand, John F. Kensett successfully worked as an engraver in New Haven, Connecticut with his father until 1829. While apprenticing, he met artists Thomas Rossiter (1818-1871) and John William Casilear (1811-1893), who would become his lifelong friends. They supported and encouraged Kensett to pursue his career as a painter. By 1840, seeking to escape his life of engraving, Kensett, Rossiter, Casilear, and Durand set sail for Europe to travel and study. He spent five years touring England and France and then traveled on to Italy visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, and Verona. Just before returning to New York in 1847, Kensett received several important commissions in Italy and was beginning to experience financial success in his artistic career. By 1848, Kensett had returned to New York to discover that a healthy market for his work awaited him; he received praise from critics and was elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member.

In the spring of that same year, he exhibited five of his works at the National Academy exhibition and was gaining recognition as one of America's prominent landscape painters of the day. After establishing a studio in New York, Kensett traveled extensively throughout the Northeastern United States and as far West as Colorado. He became best known for his landscapes depicting upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, as well as seascapes of coastal New Jersey, Long Island, and New England.

By 1864-66, when Kensett painted View of Mt. Chocorua, he had solidified his reputation as one of the premier Luminist painters in America. By now he had completed numerous painting excursions to New England, but always sought to return to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for inspiration. Characteristic of his Luminist landscape technique, Kensett chose a vantage point looking across a large valley expanse toward the peak of Mt. Chocorua. The waning rays of sunset contrast elegantly with the shadows of the foreground as darkness approaches. Here Kensett encapsulates the Luminist tradition with confidence, a purposeful brush and a quick hand.