Skip to main content

1840s Art

to
37
667
378
64
17
19
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
7,581
21,493
164,450
234,524
2,047
2,277
4,978
6,543
5,808
15,213
20,924
26,058
18,784
14,157
5,383
742
18
7
1
1
1
672
462
4
774
328
299
230
148
134
106
94
94
94
66
53
48
47
44
39
36
30
28
27
825
132
128
113
78
136
51
26
17
12
127
825
869
196
Period: 1840s
Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey

Charles Grey 2nd Earl Grey

Located in Douglas, Isle of Man

Philip Westcott 1815-1878, was a British born artist. This portrait is of the former Prime Minister Charles Grey 2nd Earl of the House of Howick, he was Prime Minister from 1830 to ...

Category

1840s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

19th century color lithograph portraits patriotic American stars flags
19th century color lithograph portraits patriotic American stars flags

19th century color lithograph portraits patriotic American stars flags

By Nathaniel Currier

Located in Milwaukee, WI

"The Presidents of the U.S." is an original hand-colored lithograph by Nathaniel Currier. It features the first eleven presidents of the United States. 14" x 10" art 23" x 19 1/8" frame Nathaniel Currier was born March 27, 1813 to Nathaniel and Hannah Currier in Roxbury, Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to William S. and John Pendleton of Boston who had set up the first lithographic establishment in America. His apprenticeship served him well as he went on to be the largest publisher of lithographs. Mr. Maurer described Nat Currier as being very gentlemanly and liberal. As is evident to the success of the firm of Currier & Ives he was very devoted to his business. Nat Currier had many friends including Horace Greely and P.T. Barnum. He was well known for his sense of humor and Harry T. Peters tells one story about P. T. Barnum. "Currier had heard that one day his friend, the great showman, had rushed into the barber shop of the old Park Hotel, at Beekman and Nassau Streets, to get a shave. Barnum had hurried up to Tom Higginson, the barber, and said, 'Tom, I'm in a hurry.' 'Sorry for it,' said Tom, 'but it's that gentleman's turn next.' 'That gentleman' was an unshaven irshman waiting for a ten-cent shave. Barnum turned to him and said, 'My friend, if you will let me have your turn, I'll pay for what you have done.' The gentleman consented, and, as Barnum found out later, had a full job done - absolutely everything the house had. The check was for a dollar and sixty cents. When Currier heard this story he found the very Irishman and had him pose. The result was the famous cartoon, "The Man that Gave Barnum 'His Turn.'" Nathaniel was married twice; his first wife was Miss Eliza West of Boston. He had one son with Eliza, Edward West Currier. In 1847 he married Miss Laura Ormsbee of Vermont. Laura and Nathaniel are memorialized in the famous N. Currier lithograph The Road Winter...

Category

Academic 1840s Art

Materials

Lithograph

New South Wales, Australia, antique mid 19th century engraved John Tallis map
New South Wales, Australia, antique mid 19th century engraved John Tallis map

New South Wales, Australia, antique mid 19th century engraved John Tallis map

Located in Melbourne, Victoria

'New South Wales' With decorative border surrounds and vignettes of 'Sydney Cove'. 'The Murray' and 'Xanthorrhea'. 'Drawn and engraved by J Rapkin'. Published by John Tallis. 375m...

Category

Victorian 1840s Art

Materials

Engraving

"New York - Taken from the Northwest angle of Fort Columbus, Governor's Island"
"New York - Taken from the Northwest angle of Fort Columbus, Governor's Island"

"New York - Taken from the Northwest angle of Fort Columbus, Governor's Island"

Located in New York, NY

New York - Taken from the north west angle of Fort Columbus Governor's Island, 1846 Engraved by Henry Papprill after a sketch by F. Catherwood, published by Henry J. Megarey Hand-colored engraving on paper Image 16 x 26 1/2 inches Henry A. Papprill (1816–1903) was a British engraver. Noted as an aquatint engraver from 1840. His plates were published from 1840 till 1883 mainly by Ackermann of the Strand. Papprill was born in Holborn, London. Lived for much of his life at Wharton Street, Lloyd Square, London. Papprill is thought to have been based in New York City for brief period in the mid-1840s. His work in the USA appears to classify him as an American engraver but he was based and gained his reputation and bulk of his work in England. He produced a series of works for Ackermann & Co from 1840 beginning with four plates called "The Jolly Squire", with verses, after James Pollard. In the following years Papprill engraved a number of military plates for Ackermann as well a series of engravings of New York (1846-9) for H.I.Megarey (published in New York). The most notable of these are: "The North West Angle of Fort Columbus, Governor's Island" (the Catherwood-Papprill view) and New York from the Steeple of St. Paul's Church, Looking East, South & West." (The Hill-Papprill view) listed in the American Historical Prints - Early Views of American Cities, etc: I.N.Phelps Stokes & Daniel C. Haskell. New York Public Library 1932. Papprill also produced for Ackermann a series of sporting prints after G. H. Laporte between 1860 and 1865. These were entitled: Racing, Hunting and Coursing. He also produced a series of shipping prints...

Category

1840s Art

Materials

Paper, Engraving, Aquatint

France 19th century, A Set of 5 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash
France 19th century, A Set of 5 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash

France 19th century, A Set of 5 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash

Located in Paris, FR

France middle of 19th century A set of 5 drawings Landscapes, farms and ruins Brown ink and brown ink wash on paper, Black ink and black ink wash on paper Dimensions vary : A big fa...

Category

Romantic 1840s Art

Materials

Ink

Ruins of an Ionic Temple

Ruins of an Ionic Temple

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

David Roberts RA Ruins of an Ionic Temple 1796 - 1864 Subscription and first edition lithographs in stock Half plate: 70 Presented in a acid free mount Modern hand-coloured lithogra...

Category

Realist 1840s Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph

Portrait of Dr. Juan Ignacio Galves

Portrait of Dr. Juan Ignacio Galves

Located in New York, NY

Signed and dated, along the bottom of the oval: Dõr. Juan Ygnacio Galves nació el año de 1797. / Por J. Celestino Figueroa año de 1841. Provenance: Luis Alberto Acuña (1904–1994), ...

Category

1840s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Oil Study of Italian Ruins Around 1850 Paethus / Paestum
Oil Study of Italian Ruins Around 1850 Paethus / Paestum

Oil Study of Italian Ruins Around 1850 Paethus / Paestum

Located in Eltville am Rhein, DE

Oil study of Italian ruins around 1850 Paethus / Paestu Oil on canvas No signature found Size 39.5 x 54 cm Good condition, minor old restoration Authenticity confirmed in writing

Category

Romantic 1840s Art

Materials

Oil

Interior of the Mosque of the Sultan Hassan

Interior of the Mosque of the Sultan Hassan

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

David Roberts RA Interior Of The Mosque Of The Sultan Hassan 1796 - 1864 Subscription Edition lithograph Full plate: 220 Presented in a acid free mount Open media 1 in modal Regular...

Category

Realist 1840s Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph

France middle 19th century, A Set of 6 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash
France middle 19th century, A Set of 6 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash

France middle 19th century, A Set of 6 drawings, landscapes and farms, Ink wash

Located in Paris, FR

France middle of 19th century (1843 ?) A set of 6 drawings Landscapes, trees, farms Brown ink and brown ink wash on paper Dimensions vary : Farms and buildings ( x 3) : 27 x 34 cm A...

Category

Romantic 1840s Art

Materials

Ink

The Jolly Flat Boat Men
The Jolly Flat Boat Men

The Jolly Flat Boat Men

By George Caleb Bingham

Located in Missouri, MO

The Jolly Flat Boat Men, 1847 After George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811-1879) Engraved by Thomas Doney (French, active New York 1844-1849) Engraving with Hand-Coloring Published by The American Art-Union, New York (1838-1851) Printed by Powell and Co. 18 x 24 inches 32 x 38 inches with frame In 1847, the American Art-Union purchased Bingham’s painting "The Jolly Flat Boat Men" (1846; National Gallery of Art) directly from the artist. The subscription-based organization, founded in 1838 as the Apollo Association, boasted nearly ten-thousand members at this date. For an annual fee of five dollars, each received a large reproductive engraving and was entered in a lottery to win original artworks exhibited at the Art-Union’s Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the organization developed an impressive distribution network that reached members in every state. The broad circulation of the Art-Union's print helped to establish Bingham's reputation and made his river scene famous. Born in Augusta County, Virginia in the Shenandoah River Valley, George Caleb Bingham became known for classically rendered western genre, especially Missouri and Mississippi River scenes of boatmen bringing cargo to the American West and politicians seeking to influence frontier life. One of his most famous river genre paintings was The Jolly Flatboatmen completed in several versions in 1846. This first version of this painting is in the Manoogian Collection at the National Gallery of Art. Fame resulted for this work when it was exhibited in New York at the American Art Union whose organizers made an engraving of 10,000 copies and distributed it to all of their members. Paintings such as Country Politician (1849) and County Election (1852) and Stump Speaking (1854) reflected Bingham's political interests. In 1819, as an eight-year old, he moved to Boon's Lick, Missouri with his parents and grandfather who had been farmers and inn keepers in the Shenandoah Valley near Rockingham, Virginia. Reportedly as a child there, he took every opportunity to escape supervision to travel the River and watch the marine activity. His father died in 1827, when his son was sixteen years old. His mother had encouraged his art talent, but art lessons were not easily obtainable. In order to earn money, he apprenticed to a cabinet maker but determined to become an artist. By 1835, he had a modest reputation as a frontier painter and successfully charged twenty dollars per portrait in St. Louis. "His portraits had become standard decorations in prosperous Missouri homes." (Samuels 46). In 1836, he moved to Natchez, Mississippi and there had the same kind of career, only was able to charge forty dollars per portrait. He remained largely self taught until 1837, when he, age 26 and using the proceeds from his portraiture, studied several months at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He later said that he learned much of his atmospheric style and classically balanced composition by copying paintings in collections in St. Louis and Philadelphia and that among his most admired painters were Thomas Cole, John Vanderlyn, and William Sidney Mount. Between 1856 and 1859, Bingham traveled back and forth to Dusseldorf, Germany, where he studied the work of genre painters. Some critics think these influences were negative on his work because during that time period, he abandoned his luminist style that had brought him so much public affirmation. Bingham credited Chester Harding (1792-1866) as being the earliest and one of the most lasting influences on his work. Harding,a leading portraitists when Bingham was a young man, had a studio in Franklin, near Bingham's home town. In 1822, when Bingham was ten years old, he watched Harding finish a portrait of Daniel Boone. Bingham recalled that watching Harding with the Boone portrait was a lasting inspiration and that it was the first time he had ever seen a painting in progress. Harding suggested to Bingham that he begin doing portraiture by finding subjects in the river men, which, of course, opened the subject matter that established fame and financial success for Bingham. Harding also encouraged Bingham to copy with paint engravings. He later painted two portraits of Boone but, contrary to the assertions of some scholars, he did not do Boone portraits in the company of Harding. Bingham's portraits of Boone are not located, but one of them, a wood signboard for a hotel in Boonville circa 1828 to 1830, showed a likeness of Boone in buckskin dress...

Category

Hudson River School 1840s Art

Materials

Engraving

PHEASANT SHOOTING
PHEASANT SHOOTING

PHEASANT SHOOTING

By Samuel John Egbert Jones

Located in Marlborough, England

Samuel John Egbert Jones (1797- 1861) PHEASANT SHOOTING Oil on canvas Frame H. 38cm x W. 47cm Image H. 30cm x W. 40cm A hunting scene in a beautiful early autumnal wooded landscape, with two hounds and a pheasant in the foreground. For an artist of such ability, popularity and wide output, information about Samuel Jones is comparatively scarce. Samual John Egbert Jones was born in 1797. Living in London, the first recorded mention of him was as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1820 with a picture of an old mare, which he later exhibited at the British Institute in 1824. Jones is best known for the fine quality of his sporting pictures, mainly portraits of hunting and work horses. Additionally, he painted coaching...

Category

1840s Art

Materials

Oil

19th century color lithograph still life vase flowers
19th century color lithograph still life vase flowers

19th century color lithograph still life vase flowers

By Nathaniel Currier

Located in Milwaukee, WI

The present hand-colored lithograph is one of several decorative images of flower-filled vases published by Nathaniel Currier. This example contains roses, tulips, forget-me-nots, and others all within a vase with gold eagle head handles and an image of a beautiful young woman the belly. 16 x 11 inches, artwork 22.5 x 18.25 inches, frame Entitled bottom center Signed in the stone, lower left "Lith. and Pub. by N. Currier" Inscribed lower right "152 Nassau St. Cor. of Spruce N.Y." Copyrighted bottom center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1848 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." with the number 249 Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting, housed in a lemon gold moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Category

Romantic 1840s Art

Materials

Watercolor, Lithograph

Four large French family portraits
Four large French family portraits

Four large French family portraits

Located in BELEYMAS, FR

Suite of four large family portraits, kept together to this day. Created around 1840 by the painter Théophile Morel, who presented portraits at the Salon des Artistes Français from t...

Category

French School 1840s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Soldier's Ballad - Lithograph by Max Ernst - 1972

The Soldier's Ballad - Lithograph by Max Ernst - 1972

By Max Ernst

Located in Roma, IT

The Soldier's Ballad is a contemporary artwork realized by Max Ernst in 1972. Mixed colored lithograph on Arches Paper. Edited by Manus Presse, Stuttgart 1972. Not signed and not ...

Category

Surrealist 1840s Art

Materials

Lithograph

Approach to the Fortress of Ibrim

Approach to the Fortress of Ibrim

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

David Roberts RA Approach To The Fortress Of Ibrim 1796 - 1864 First Edition lithographs Full plate: 174 Presented in a acid free mount

Category

Realist 1840s Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph

Citadel of Jerusalem

Citadel of Jerusalem

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

Available in subscription edition Full plate: 24 Presented in a acid free mount We have both Subscription and First Edition lithographs in stock. The subscription edition was printe...

Category

Realist 1840s Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph

"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School
"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School

"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School

By John Frederick Kensett

Located in New York, NY

John Frederick Kensett (1816 - 1872) Portrait of an Italian Fencer, circa 1845-47 Watercolor on wove paper 13 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches Signed with initials and inscribed lower right "J.F.K. Rome" From October 1845 through the spring of 1847, Kensett lived in Rome. He attended classes where he sketched from live models, and he sketched in the countryside outside Rome and around Florence, Perugia, and Venice, places he visited with his artist friends. He fulfilled commissions for paintings from Americans in Italy, and by 1847 his career was well established. Son of an English immigrant engraver, John Kensett lacked enthusiasm for that medium and became one of the most accomplished painters of the second generation of Hudson River School painters. His reputation is for Luminism, careful depiction of light, weather, and atmosphere as they affect color and texture of natural forms. He was particularly influenced by the painting of Asher Durand in that he focused on realism and detail rather than the highly dramatic views associated with Thomas Cole. Going to the western United States in the mid 1850s and the 1860s, he was the first of the Hudson River School painters to explore and paint the West. Kensett was born and raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, and learned his engraving from his father, Thomas Kensett with whom he worked in New Haven, Connecticut until 1829. He continued working until 1840 as an engraver of labels, banknotes and maps and was employed part of that time by the American Bank Note Company in New York City. There he met Thomas Rossiter, John Casilear, and other artists who urged him to pursue painting. In 1840, he and Rossiter, Asher Durand, and Casilear went to Europe where Kensett stayed for seven years and supported himself by doing engraving but became accomplished in landscape painting. Having sent canvases of Italian landscapes back to New York, he had a reputation for skillful painting that preceded him. When he returned to New York City in 1847, he was an "instant success" and very sought after by collectors. Two of his Italian landscapes had already been purchased by the American Art Union. By 1849, he was a full member of the National Academy of Design and was generally popular among his peers. His studio was a gathering place with travelers stopping by to see his canvases and to identify "precise locations in the Catskills or Newport or New England in the oil sketches and drawings that covered his walls." (Zellman 170). For the women, he was a popular bachelor, "romantic looking with high forehead and sensitive expression." (Samuels 262) He was also sought after by many organizations. Among his activities were serving on the committee to oversee the decoration of the United States Capitol in Washington DC, and becoming one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. An inveterate traveler, Kensett spent summers on painting excursions away from New York City. One of these trips was a special painting excursion with fifteen other artists sponsored by the B & O Railroad from Baltimore, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia. Unlike many of the Hudson River painters...

Category

Hudson River School 1840s Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Town of Tiberias Looking Towards Lebanon

Town of Tiberias Looking Towards Lebanon

By David Roberts

Located in London, GB

David Roberts RA Town of Tiberias Looking Towards Lebanon 1796 - 1864 First Edition lithograph Half plate: 35 Presented in a acid free mount Modern hand-coloured lithograph for the...

Category

Realist 1840s Art

Materials

Laid Paper, Lithograph