Detail View: The AMICA Library: An October Day in the White Mountains

AMICA ID: 
CMA_.1967.5
AMICA Library Year: 
2000
Object Type: 
Paintings
Creator Name: 
Kensett, John Frederick
Creator Nationality: 
North American; American
Creator Role: 
artist
Creator Dates/Places: 
1816 - 1872
Gender: 
M
Creator Name-CRT: 
John Frederick Kensett
Title: 
An October Day in the White Mountains
Title Type: 
Primary
View: 
Full View
Creation Date: 
1854
Creation Start Date: 
1854
Creation End Date: 
1854
Materials and Techniques: 
oil on canvas
Dimensions: 
Unframed: 79.8cm x 123.5cm
AMICA Contributor: 
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 
1967.5
Credit Line: 
John L. Severance Fund and various donors by exchange
Inscriptions: 
Signed lower right: "JF.K. 54 [JF in monogram]"
Rights: 
Provenance: 
[Possibly T. Olyphant, Washington, 1858]; (Sloan & Roman, New York, 1967)
Context: 
Originally trained as an engraver, John F. Kensett shifted to landscape painting as a young man. In the summer of 1850, when he was thirty-nine, Kensett made a tour of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, during which he sketched this view of Mount Chocurua, with the Saco River winding beneath it. Shortly afterwards, he created this painting of the scene, which he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1855. In contrast to earlier American landscapists, such as Thomas Cole, who reveled in stormy skies and rocky chasms, Kensett's paintings, such as this one, tend to be peaceful in feeling. Kensett was particularly interested in the subtle changes of color and clarity that occur as objects recede into the distance-an effect which is known as "atmospheric perspective."
Related Image Identifier Link: 
CMA_.1967.5.tif