Object number2024.27.2
Standing Female Figure
Date1846
Artist
John Frederick Kensett
(American, 1816-1872)
CultureAmerican
MediumPencil and watercolor on paper
DimensionsImage: 13 x 9 3/4 in. (33 x 24.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, Gift of Ellen G. Milberg, class of 1960
On View
Not on viewPeriod19th c
Classification(s)
Label TextJohn Frederick Kensett was one of the most prominent American landscape painters of the nineteenth century. Since most of his paintings featured natural vistas that minimized human presence, sketches like Standing Female Figure offer a glimpse into a lesser-known part of his practice. He drafted this figure study while visiting Italy between 1845 and 1847. For Kensett, and many of his American peers, Italy—particularly Rome—represented an enchanted place filled with ruins and remnants of bygone eras. While staying in Rome, Kensett joined a thriving community of American artists and intellectuals who had established residences and studios in the “Eternal City.” In addition to sketching the Italian countryside, Kensett used this time to create studies of models dressed in traditional Italian costume, like Standing Female Figure. Such drawings, perhaps made as studies for future paintings, may have been executed in a night school in Rome where American artists frequently gathered.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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James Renwick, Jr.
c. 1860
Culture: American
