The Luminous Landscapes of John Fredrick Kensett

The Luminists were considered to be a subgroup of the Hudson River Painters. While these younger painters shared the same traditions of the Hudson River Painters, artists such as John Kensett (1816-1872) were more interested in the subtle effects of daylight, especially at dawn and dusk, than in the graphic representation of a specific place or landscape. This program will outline the evolution of Kensett from a Hudson River Artist-Explorer to an American Luminist. We will visit Contentment Island in Connecticut, where he lived and painted after the end of the Civil War and sought to reveal the serene quality of light and weather. Through Kensett, Dunlop will explore the techniques for evoking a suffused unified light, the American appetite for tranquility in art after the Civil War, and the eternal legacy of the Luminists.