# Clearing Off

- By: John Frederick Kensett (born Cheshire, CT 1816-died New York City 1872)
- Date: 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)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Robert and Margaret Hazen
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=121631)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/ba779e838d4a2da64e370afeb811f4a4.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.