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Clearing Off
John Frederick Kensett (born Cheshire, CT 1816-died New York City 1872)
ca. 1865
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 25 5/8 × 35 3/8 × 3 1/4 in. (65.1 × 89.9 × 8.3 cm)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Robert and Margaret Hazen
- 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
A storm blows through this Civil War--era coastal landscape, turning the water a dark steely gray. John Frederick Kensett's dramatic vantage point places the viewer low in the scrub amid the boulders. A striking drift of red wildflowers in the front center catches the light and glistens like fresh blood, a subtle reference to the ongoing political conflict.
