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John Frederick Kensett
1816–1872
BirthplaceCheshire, Connecticut, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyJohn Frederick Kensett belonged to the second generation of the Hudson River school, America’s first native movement in landscape painting, and was one of its most influential and best-loved members. Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, Kensett followed in his father’s footsteps by training and working as an engraver in New Haven, Connecticut, New York City, and Albany, New York. He took up painting as an escape from the drudgery of engraving, and in 1838 exhibited a landscape painting at New York’s prestigious National Academy of Design. Two years later, in the company of fellow painters, he sailed for Europe, determined to pursue a career as a landscape painter.
For the next seven years, Kensett lived and traveled in England, France, and Italy. Supporting himself as an engraver, he studied landscape paintings by English and continental masters and painted numerous works of his own. Sales of these paintings in New York helped establish his reputation in America, and within two years of his return Kensett was elected a full member of the National Academy. He was also a member of the prestigious Century Club and its Sketch Club, organizations at the center of New York’s artistic and literary worlds. Kensett became a powerful as well as much-loved figure on the New York art scene.
A prolific artist, Kensett traveled widely throughout the Northeast, to the American West, and to Europe to sketch and paint. He is best known, however, for quiet scenes of the New England coastline, including New York’s Hudson River and the artist’s native Connecticut. Kensett was also extremely active and influential in numerous institutions that shaped the American art world of his day, helping to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, and serving as one of its first trustees. He was deeply respected and esteemed by his fellow artists and by collectors and patrons. The year after Kensett’s death, an auction sale of his studio’s contents yielded more than $136,000, an enormous sum for the time that testified to the great respect his art commanded among his contemporaries.
For the next seven years, Kensett lived and traveled in England, France, and Italy. Supporting himself as an engraver, he studied landscape paintings by English and continental masters and painted numerous works of his own. Sales of these paintings in New York helped establish his reputation in America, and within two years of his return Kensett was elected a full member of the National Academy. He was also a member of the prestigious Century Club and its Sketch Club, organizations at the center of New York’s artistic and literary worlds. Kensett became a powerful as well as much-loved figure on the New York art scene.
A prolific artist, Kensett traveled widely throughout the Northeast, to the American West, and to Europe to sketch and paint. He is best known, however, for quiet scenes of the New England coastline, including New York’s Hudson River and the artist’s native Connecticut. Kensett was also extremely active and influential in numerous institutions that shaped the American art world of his day, helping to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, and serving as one of its first trustees. He was deeply respected and esteemed by his fellow artists and by collectors and patrons. The year after Kensett’s death, an auction sale of his studio’s contents yielded more than $136,000, an enormous sum for the time that testified to the great respect his art commanded among his contemporaries.