New Painting an Exciting Addition to PEM Collection

For those of you who appreciate great paintings, and like to be in the know regarding important American maritime art, you will be interested in this release from the Peabody Essex Museum.

If you are from this area, especially Nahant, you may also want to know about this piece which will be displayed later this summer.

And if you always trust that our wonderful PEM will only have spectacular shows, and you want to be sure to see them all, this is a heads up to mark your calendar to make sure you are in Salem, MA at the right time to attend this upcoming show.
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WORK TO BE FEATURED IN SUMMER EXHIBITION, 

PAINTING THE AMERICAN VISION

SALEM, MA -- The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces the acquisition of a key work by Hudson River School painter, John Frederick Kensett.  Acknowledged to be one of the finest works by the most prominent American seascape painter of his day, Forty Steps, Newport, Rhode Island, 1860 is a very welcome addition to the museum’s internationally-renowned collection of maritime art.

PEM purchased the painting through the generosity in part of museum supporters, Ulf and Betsy Heide of Marblehead, Massachusetts.

“In this painting, which dates just prior to the Civil War, we see Kensett exploring elements that he developed further in his mature work, namely an emphasis on light and atmosphere over landscape, a strikingly asymmetrical composition, and an overall aura of tranquility,” said Dan Finamore, The Russell W. Knight Curator of Maritime Art & History.

Kensett is known as a luminist master who created atmospheric works concerned thematically with man’s place in nature. His canvases are notable for their elegance of line and coloristic clarity. This work bears regional intrigue for New Englanders, with some debate remaining as to the titular location identified as Rhode Island, or possibly Nahant, Massachusetts.

The acquisition presages PEM’s summer opening of Painting the American Vision — an exhibition featuring 45 magnificent American landscape paintings of the Hudson River School from the collection of the New-York Historical Society, including Thomas Cole's iconic series of monumental works, “The Course of Empire,” as well as works by Kensett.

Painting the American Vision (July 30 - November 6, 2011)


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I hope to see you here, or there!


Juli