Lake George, New York
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
22 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (57.2 x 92.7 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Thomas Kensett, 1874
Accession Number
74.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
John Frederick Kensett's *Lake George, New York* (1872) invites visitors into the tranquil beauty of the American Northeast, a hallmark of the Hudson River School. As a leading Luminist painter, Kensett the region's natural splendor with serene precision, emphasizing Lake George's glassy waters framed by distant mountains. This oil on canvas, measuring 22½ × 36½ inches, exemplifies the medium's versatility in the 19th century, allowingett to layer translucent glazes for ethereal light effects that evoke a sense of divine calm and introspection. Painted late in Kensett's career, the work refle...
About the Artist
John Frederick Kensett · 1816–1872
John Frederick Kensett (1816–1872) was one of the most admired American landscape painters of the nineteenth century, a central figure of the Hudson River School whose late work pioneered the atmospheric, light-saturated style now known as Luminism. Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, into a family of engravers, Kensett learned the craft of engraving in his youth, a discipline that gave him an early tr...