Neptune's Needle

Artist and painter of seascapes. Kensett attended the Cheshire Episcopal Academy from 1820 to 1821 and began to study engraving with his father at an early age. He went on to study with his uncle, Alfred Daggett, also an engraver, in New Haven, and by 1828 was employed in his shop there. In 1829 he went to New York City to work for Peter Maverick, the best-known engraver in America.

During his long apprenticeship in engraving, Kensett privately pursued the study of painting. In 1838 he exhibited a landscape painting at the National Academy of Design. By 1841 he was settled in Paris, where he shared a studio with Boston landscape artist Benjamin Champney. While in Paris he often dined with prominent American artist John Vanderlyn and came to know painter Thomas Cole.

When Kensett returned to the United States in November 1847, his landscapes had already earned him some reputation. He took a studio in the New York University Building in Washington Square and worked diligently, selling enough canvases to the Art-Union during 1848 to pay all the debts he had incurred in Europe. That year he was elected an associate of the National Academy; the next year he was elected a full member and in 1850 became a member of its council. His paintings sold very well, and he was highly regarded by his colleagues, who often called on him for his services in professional organizations. He founded and was the first president of the Artists' Fund, dedicated to aiding indigent artists and their families. From 1859 to 1862 he was one of three appointed by President James Buchanan to advise on the decoration of the national Capitol in Washington, D.C. In 1865 he was made the chairman of the Art Committee of the Sanitary Fair, which raised money for the Sanitary Commission to the Union army in the Civil War. In 1870 he became a founder, and later a trustee and member of the Executive Committee, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Kensett did much to elevate the status of artists in the United States and was one of the most popular members of the Hudson River school, though not one of its most influential. His landscapes--including scenes of the Adirondack and Catskill mountains, the Connecticut coast, and the lakes and rivers of New York State--were characterized by a detailed observation of nature and expert craftsmanship that reflected the discipline acquired as a bank-note engraver. Kensett was appreciated, however, for the sensitivity and refinement of his handling of light and the classical purity of his compositions rather than for any great originality of treatment.

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Compiler

Peter Richards