Kensett in Connecticut.(nineteenth-century American landscape painter John Frederick Kensett)(Brief Article)

Nineteenth-century American landscape painters traveled constantly to find new and challenging subject matter. Frequently an artist would find a location to which he returned again and again over the years, painting landscapes that in many cases can still be identified today John Frederick Kensett was one of these artists, and late in his life his chosen spot was Contentment Island off Darien, Connecticut. An exhibition that explores the works he executed there is on view at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury Connecticut, from September 15 through November 17. It is entitled Images of Contentment: John Frederick Kensett and the Connecticut Shore and contains more than twenty paintings and drawings as well as historical photographs, maps, and mariners' charts.

Kensett was introduced to Contentment Island in 1867 by his friend and fellow artist Vincent Colyer, who had purchased land there the preceding year. Kensett must have been totally enchanted by it, for he bought property--the only land he ever owned--from Colyer that year At this time Kensett was at the apex of his career and a leader of the New York artistic community, as is evident in his membership in institutions such as the National Academy of Design, the Century Association, the Sketch Club, the Artist's Fund Society, and the United States Capitol Art Commission. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Contentment Island had the advantage of being less than two hours by train or steamboat from New York City where Kensett lived. And because the Connecticut shoreline does not front the Atlantic Ocean, the water is calmer, the winter more temperate, and the land and buildings are less likely to be destroyed in rough weather.

Period photographs and other documents reveal that Colyer built a commodious house on the island, ...