Twilight on the Sound, Darien, Connecticut

John Frederick Kensett

1872 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

Kensett normally left the dramatic spectacles of sunrises, sunsets, dawns and twilights to colleagues such as Frederic Church and Sanford Gifford. However, especially in summer 1872, when he painted exclusively from and around the island he owned in Long Island Sound, he explored light and color more liberally than he ever had, his attention confined daily to the uninflected contours of the water and coastal topography. The better then to render the various tones and tints of the sky and its reflection in the water in delicious studies such as this, where earthly features are lost in silhouette and the air and water briefly acquire the warmth of human flesh.

Artist

John Frederick Kensett

Date

1872

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Thomas Kensett, 1874