River View with Mountains, 1854

Provenance

Grand Central Art Galleries, Inc., New York, 1954

Private collection

Private collection, by descent from above

Phillips, New York, December 3, 1987, lot 7

Private collection, acquired from above

Sale, Christie’s, New York, January 23, 2026, lot 415

Related Works

Lake George, 1869, oil on canvas, 44⅛ x 66⅜ inches, monogrammed lower right: JF.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York

Camel’s Hump from the Western Shore of Lake Champlain, 1852, oil on canvas, 31⅜ x 45³⁄₁₆ inches, monogramed lower right: JFK; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia

Note

Kensett’s River View with Mountains and other works completed during the 1850s epitomize the artist’s early Luminist aesthetic and are remarkable for their evocative mood.”[1] The diffuse atmospheric light and muted palette create a sense of quiet reflection and anticipate the approach he would continue to refine in the decades that followed. Kensett’s work is held in numerous major institutions throughout the United States including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

[1] John Paul Driscoll and John K. Howat, John Frederick Kensett: An American Master (W.W. Norton and Company, 1985), 103