Mountain Landscape, Lombardy
Medium
Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper
Dimensions
7 x 10 in. (17.8 x 25.4 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Maria DeWitt Jesup and Morris K. Jesup Funds, 1974
Accession Number
1974.198
Tags
Art Historical Context
John Frederick Kensett's *Mountain Landscape, Lombardy* captures majestic, snow-capped peaks of Italy's Lombardy region in a delicate watercolor and graphite sketch on white wove paper measuring just 7 x10 inches. As a leading figure in the Hudson River School and Luminism movement, Kensett was renowned for his luminous depictions of nature, often drawing from his European travels in the 184s and 1850s. This intimate study likely served as a preparatory work or personal memento, blending American precision with the dramatic alpine scenery of Lombardy, home to the southern Alps. The medium shi...
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...