John Frederick Kensett
Papers, 1830-1872
SC19480

(Boxes 1-3 also available on two reels of microfilm: MB/FM,759.147,K369,200-5747. The accompanying finding aid does not completely replicate the order in which items were microfilmed.)

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Selected items from the John Frederick Kensett Papers have been digitized.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of John Frederick Kensett consist mostly of correspondence, 1832-1872, that depicts vividly his colorful career as an engraver and painter. They cover all phases of his career from his early years as a successful but discontented engraver, through the years of study in Europe, to fulfillment as an acclaimed member of the Hudson River School of Landscape Painters. Kensett corresponded with many well-known artists, writers, scholars, and publishers, whose letters provide a valuable perspective on the cultural and intellectual climate in the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. The letters are arranged alphabetically by correspondent. A list of correspondents is included at the end of this finding aid. The collection also includes three sketchbooks that provide insight into the thought process behind Kensett's finished works, a visual passport that records Kensett's movements throughout Europe from 1840 to1847, and papers relating to the art exhibit at the Metropolitan Fair in 1864.

Biographical Sketch:

John Frederick Kensett, painter and engraver, was born March 22, 1816 in Cheshire, Connecticut, the second son of Thomas and Elizabeth Daggett Kensett. His training as an engraver began probably around 1828, with a job in the New Haven engraving shop of his father and uncle, Alfred Daggett. At some point, possibly 1829, Kensett went to New York to work as an apprentice in the shop of Peter Maverick, a well-known engraver in America. Here he met John Casilaer, who also became a leading engraver and painter, and Kensett's life long friend. Later that same year, Kensett's father passed away, making it necessary to return to New Haven, where he rejoined his uncle's new engraving firm, Daggett, Himan and Company. In 1835, after a falling out with his uncle, he moved to New York, taking a job with the American Bank Note Company. He worked there for two years, during which time he formed a close friendship with Thomas P. Rossiter and Asher B. Durand. Kensett moved again in 1838 to Albany, New York, taking a job with the engraving firm of Hall, Packard, and Cushman. He left Albany in 1840, staying briefly in New York, then sailed to Europe, where he spent the next seven years in art studies.

Kensett became highly successful as an engraver during the years prior to his departure for Europe, yet he was not content with the work as it tended to be very tedious and too mundane. This is made very clear in his correspondence, which speaks of his desire for social gatherings, singing, talking, pretty women, cigars, and punch to ease the pains of frustration with his situation. He would also speak of his desire, on many occasions, to learn more about art, especially painting, a knowledge which could best be attained at that time by study in Europe.

When Kensett first arrived in England he immediately set off to meet his grandmother and Uncle John at Hampton Court. He also had taken time to visit the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square and other collections, where he compiled many notes. Moreover, he resumed the business of engraving for his American employer, work that was to support him for many years to come. Despite the pleasure and temptation of family and artistic attractions of London, Hampton Court, and Windsor, Kensett continued on to Paris. Here along with Casilaer and Rossiter, Kensett entered into an intense period of study and discovery.

Life in Paris had become less than ideal with the passage of time, as Kensett and his artist friends, Casilaer and Rossiter, along with two new companions, Benjamin Champney and Thomas Hicks, were constantly afflicted by financial problems. They would mutually lend money to each other when they had it, and borrow it when they had none. The letters composed by Kensett to his Uncle John at Hampton Court, during his first few months in Paris, concerned his difficulties and discomfort of poverty in addition to descriptions of his artistic endeavors. Sometime in 1842 Kensett's financial situation improved greatly through a friendship he had with William Francis Edmunds, a banker and amateur painter. It proved to be a vital link in his career as Edmunds was well connected with art sales and distribution organizations in the United States. Edmunds was a founder and officer of the American Art Union which purchased 48 of Kensett's pictures between 1841 and 1852. Without the financial boost provided by the sale of these pictures, Kensett probably would have been forced to return to New York without enjoying his extended stay in Italy.

In June 1843 Kensett went to Hampton Court to settle his grandmother's estate, an undertaking that developed into a two-year legal snarl. The extended stay in England proved to be quite beneficial in advancing his career. It was here he did his landscape of Windsor Castle, which was highly esteemed by art critics. In June 1845 Kensett departed London for Paris, where he remained briefly with Champney making a few sketching excursions. In July they traveled along the Rhine and across the Alps through Germany, Switzerland and Italy, arriving in Rome in October. Kensett took rooms with Thomas Hicks near the Piazza di Spagna. The following summer, 1846, he commenced a summer-long sketching journey through the hills and mountains surrounding Rome. He returned to Rome in October for the winter of 1846-1847, during which time he became a close friend to George William Curtis. This friendship opened a great door for Kensett, both intellectually and socially, as Curtis was well connected with some of the greatest American thinkers and writers of the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles A. Dana, Thomas Gold Appleton, James Russell Lowell and Charles Elliot Norton. Many of them became Kensett's friends and correspondents.

Kensett's last months in Italy were spent traveling south of Rome with Curtis, visiting Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento. After returning to Rome, they went on a month-long Italian tour via Florence and Venice, where for another month they took rooms. These days of work and discovery came to an end in September 1847, when Kensett left Curtis in Verona and returned, through Switzerland, to Paris, and then to London. Finally in November he went to New York after seven years' absence. Back in New York Kensett's life revolved wholly around his art and social activities. Devoted to his work, he produced a great number of landscape paintings. His social activities included memberships in several prestigious art clubs and organizations, such as the Century Association and the Sketch Club. More importantly, he was made a full academian in the National Academy of Design in May 1849.

In 1859, Kensett found himself thrust into the national political stage with an appointment by President James Buchanan, along with James Lambdin and Henry Kirke Brown, to a special commission on interior art and design of the United States Capitol Building. They made several recommendations that were submitted in a report to Congress that was ultimately rejected for political reasons. Kensett's last major lifetime endeavor was planning and organizing the art exhibit for the Metropolitan Fair, an event sponsored by the Union League Club to raise funds on behalf of the United States Sanitary Commission. Kensett passed away on December 14, 1872.

Box and Folder List

Letters to John F. Kensett MB/FM 759.147 K369 200-5747
(SC19480, Boxes 1-3) Detailed List of Correspondents

Provenance Note:

These letters were microfilmed when the Kensett material was part of the Edwin D. Morgan Papers. The microfilm was made of the letters in boxes 31 and 32. (These numbers were the box numbers before Morgan was rehoused and Kensett removed).