American Art Collaborative

“I long to get amid the scenery of my own country for it abounds with the picturesque, the grand, and the beautiful . . .” Kensett, 1844, quoted in Driscoll and Howat, John Frederick Kensett, An American Master, 198
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