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Forest Interior with Stream
John Frederick Kensett (born Cheshire, CT 1816-died New York City 1872)
ca. 1860-1870
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 17 3/8 x 14 1/2 in. (44.2 x 36.8 cm.)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Francis J. McCoy
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
John Frederick Kensett painted intimate views of the landscape to express what he called in 1844 "that beautiful harmony in which God has created the universe" (Driscoll and Howat, John Frederick Kensett, An American Master, 1985). Images like Forest Interior with Stream suggested the nineteenth-century faith that the wilderness was a gift for man to enjoy. Kensett painted a small stream with only a few ripples to show an area of calm among the dark, tangled branches. The expressive brushstrokes and scratches of paint suggest he painted this on the spot.
