Jennifer Hughs,
Davis Museum and
Cultural Center,
Wellesley College

John Frederick Kensett's Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway majestically illustrates 19th-century America's hopes and ambitions with convincing realism and sentiment. A rocky dirt path leads into a nest of houses, a church and a few town buildings whose rooftops and steeples peak out from a sheltering valley of trees and farmlands. Resting below the massive Mount Washington off in the distance, the valley is protectively enclosed by the mountains of the Appalachian Mountain range. This hilltop panoramic view personalizes the painting, giving the viewer a physical and spiritual sense of coming home. A diminutive figure can be seen reclining under a shady tree while tending to wandering sheep that dot the hilltop. Another figure is walking slowly along further down the path, as if taking in the scene around him.

Harmonious interaction between man and nature is depicted within Kensett's panoramic landscape. Rather than presenting an untamed or conquered landscape, Kensett promotes the rewards of virtuous labor and industrious, respectful attention to nature. Mount Washington exemplified the virtues set by the American Art-Union in the mid 19th century. Founded in 1838 to "promote the permanent and progressive advance of American Art," the Art-Union was possibly the most influential art institution of its day. American landscape artists were encouraged to aspire to a large measure of literal truth as well as patriotic sentiment, "something that will awaken our sympathies and strengthen the bond that binds us to our home."

Kensett's fidelity to detail, heroism, and patriotism was lauded by the Art-Union and well received by the American public. This vision of orderly paradise, however, reveals nothing of the political and social turmoil ripping the nation at this time in history. The flourishing slave trade in the nations capitol was increasingly noxious to office-holders in the North; the absence of effective fugitive-slave policies was aggravating to the South and talk of secession was spurring them on toward Civil War. Technological advances such as the railroad and steam power were transforming America from an agrarian society to an industrial economy.

By 1850 the population had exceeded 23 million, with citizens spanning the entire continent and huge numbers of immigrants changing the demographic and political profiles of entire regions. The detailed realism with which Mount Washington is painted makes the view of Eden more persuasive; its appeal was sentimental, evoking images of a more innocent time. Kensett's placement in the Art-Union's annual exhibition was perhaps intended to shore up a Jeffersonian vision of America, chosen to serve as the public voice of its culture as well as to embody stability to a country in turmoil.

Jennifer Hughes, curatorial assistant,
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College.
Based on The Wellesley College Museum's Centennial Year exhibition and publication, Arcadia in America,
by Carol Troyen.