Art Bridges Collection

John Frederick Kensett
Beacon Rock, Newport

About

John Frederick Kensett was renowned for his ability to imbue his paintings with a feeling of quiet beauty, and in 1867, art critic Henry T. Tuckerman described him as “the lyrical poet of American landscape art.” At the beginning of his career, Kensett followed the traditions of a previous generation of American landscape painters such as Thomas Cole and Asher Durand.

Like the works of these artists, Kensett’s early paintings are dense with details depicting the natural world. Beacon Rock, Newport exemplifies a different style developed by Kensett in his later works, which is defined by serene openness, uncomplicated compositions, muted palettes, and a keen understanding of light.

Kensett preferred marine scenes, and he is best remembered for tranquil depictions of the American coast. Although Beacon Rock, Newport clearly depicts a figurative landscape, Kensett’s sparse composition explores voids, shapes, contours and divisions in a way that prefigures the work of abstract painters a century later.

Artist

John Frederick Kensett

Dimensions

18 × 30 in. (45.7 × 76.2 cm) Framed: 29 5/8 × 41 3/8 × 5 1/4 in.

Credit Line

Art Bridges

Date

1863

Medium

Oil on canvas

Object Number

AB.2018.13

Signed

lr: JFK

Provenance

to Anne Davison Low (Mrs. Abiel Abbot Low) [1819-1890], Brooklyn Heights, NY; Newport, RI, 1863-1864; by bequest to William Gilman Low (her son) [1844-1936], Bristol, RI, 1890; by bequest to Benjamin Robbins Curtis Low (his son) [1880-1941], NY; Bristol, RI, 1936; to William Gilman Low, Jr. (his brother) [1875-1945], 1939-1940; by bequest to Rhoda Low Seone (his widow) [1880-1967], Bristol, RI, 1945; by descent in the family until 1992; Private Collection, 1992; (Babcock Galleries, New York, NY), 2005; purchased by Barbara and Ted Alfond, Massachusetts, 2005; (Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York, NY); purchased by Art Bridges, TX, 2018

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