Day 289 - Later Hudson River School artists



 March 18, 2022

According to the introductory signage in gallery 761, light was the central subject of many Late Hudson River School artists working between about 1860 and 1880. This is certainly true of the two works  featured in today's entry.

The first,  entitled "Newburyport Meadows,"  a small (approximately 25 inches wide and 12 inches high) canvas painted between 1876 and 1881 by Martin Johnson Heade, is one of many Heade works depicting wetlands.  In the bottom third of the image, receding into the distance, is a green marshy meadow, broken by pools of water, haystacks,  and, barely visible,  a minute haying wagon. But what captures my attention is the gray, lowering sky.  Heavy rain seems to pour from the dark cloud at the left; the scene at the right is illuminated by that weird white light that signals an imminent downpour.  The painting is brilliantly executed - and disquieting, reminding me of the uncontrollable force of nature. I wouldn't want to hang the painting in my home - it would be too unnerving.

But I would  love to own John Frederick Kensett's "Sunset on the Sea," painted in 1882, the last year of Kensett's life.  Measuring roughly 48 inches wide and 36 inches high, the work is divided into two zones -- the radiant sky above, the waves of the sea below -- with no land masses, boats, or other extraneous elements to distract the viewer. The sky is beautifully depicted, but what I marvel at are the white brushstrokes used to limn the crests of the waves at the center of the composition. They practically leap off the canvas.  



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