At Newport, Rhode Island

Just as it towers over Newport Harbor, so Beacon Rock dominates this work by Connecticut-born John Frederick Kensett, one of the most acclaimed painters of the second half of the nineteenth century. A prominent member of the National Academy of Design, he was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kensett’s abiding interest in tonal values is readily apparent in the rich gradations of color of his subject. His characteristic thick application of paint also suggests the tactile quality of the weathered stone with its rampant covering of moss. With its small scale and closely focused viewpoint, the painting emphasizes the triumph of nature over culture. Although a fashionable bustling resort in the mid-nineteenth century, all human activity in Kensett’s vision of Newport is registered as barely visible marks against the distant horizon. What is of primary importance is the massive grandeur of the rocky outcrop. The artist returned to the subject throughout his career, painting Beacon Rock at several times from a variety of perspectives. Fifteen years after Kensett's death, in 1887, Commodore Edwin D. Morgan (cousin of John Pierpont Morgan) commissioned a large mansion on the site from noted architects McKim, Mead, and White, that still stands today.