Near Newport
John Frederick Kensett (American, 1816–1872)
1869
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 29.5 × 62.4 cm (11 5/8 × 24 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Newport
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Friends of American Art Collection; Goodman Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In this late work, John Frederick Kensett portrayed the Rhode Island coast with spare, yet meticulous forms suffused with light and quietude. A solitary female figure seated at right almost goes unnoticed amid the long, horizontal bands of earth and water. It is the expansive sky that dominates the composition, suggestive of a spiritual force in nature. Kensett, who first trained as an engraver, applied draftsman’s precision to his paintings of the American landscape. Near Newport hints at the tourist activities that would come to define the town in the late 19th century, with couples walking along the distant shore and bathing tents dotting the horizon.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
