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Mountains in Colorado
John Frederick Kensett (born Cheshire, CT 1816-died New York City 1872)
1870
- Medium
- oil on paper mounted on paperboard
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 10 1/4 x 14 in. (25.9 x 35.7 cm)
- Culture
- Colorado
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), 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 Smithsonian Institution
About this work
John Frederick Kensett painted peaceful views in muted colors to express a sense of quiet reflection. American artists in the nineteenth century often painted the mountains of the American West rising dramatically from the Great Plains. Kensett, however, chose to paint from inside the mountains, showing successive ridges marching toward the Continental Divide. The dull browns, greens, and grays of the scene evoke the cold, thin atmosphere of Colorado’s high altitudes.
