John Kensett’s Paintings Of The Connecticut Shore On View At Mattatuck Museum

WATERBURY — “Images of Contentment: John Frederick Kensett and the Connecticut Shore,” an exhibit of paintings by one of the nation’s most loved landscape painters, is at Mattatuck Museum through November 18. This is the first exhibition to focus on the paintings the artist created from his home and studio in Connecticut in the years following the Civil War.

Between 1867 and 1872, Kensett painted the views from Contentment Island on the coast of Darien over and over, capturing his intimate understanding of the effects of color and light on the image of the land and water. This was the only land the painter ever owned, and his deep perception of nature at this place led to some of his most innovative work.

While many of the paintings had been wrongly attributed to coastal Rhode Island or Massachusetts in recent decades, it is now known that Kensett painted more than 60 views of the Connecticut shore.

The exhibit has brought together more than 20 of these paintings and drawing for the first time, pairing the Connecticut scenes with historic photographs, maps and mariner’s charts to better understand the distinctive characteristics of the Connecticut shore and to explore Kensett’s selective perceptions of the place. In addition to Kensett’s Connecticut paintings and drawings, the exhibit includes examples of the work of Kensett’s neighbor at Contentment Island and fellow painter, Vincent Colyer.

The exhibit includes work from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New-York Historical Society, Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, and Amon Carter Museum in Texas, as well as paintings loaned from smaller institutions and several from private collections that have not publicly exhibited before.

A catalog of the exhibit offers color illustrations of all of the paintings and drawings identified as Connecticut scenes, including several that were not available for the exhibit. The catalog includes a substantial essay on Kensett and his Contentment Island paintings in the context of the aesthetic transformation of the nation after the Civil War written by Dr Janice Simon of the University of Georgia and an essay by Mattatuck Museum curator Ann Smith on the artist’s experience at Contentment Island. The 52-page catalog is illustrated with 36 images, including historical views of the scenes from Kensett’s studio and maps of the area.

The Mattatuck Museum, which specializes in the arts of Connecticut, is located on the northwest corner of the green in Waterbury at 144 West Main Street, two blocks north of I-84’s Exit 21. Public parking is conveniently located behind the museum. Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am until 5 pm, and Sunday from noon until 5 pm.

The museum can be contacted by calling 203-753-0381. Additional information, including details about public programs related to “Images of Contentment,” is available at www.Kensett.org and www.MattatuckMuseum.org.