Entrance to Harbor—Moonlight
This picture was made at a time when highly finished drawings in black and white had begun to appeal to connoisseurs. Kennedy essentially rendered this image in pencil on the gray gouache ground covering the paper. He then produced highlights by scratching the ground to reveal the white paper beneath, producing the glow of the moon, the luminous filigree of clouds, the watery reflections and foamy surf, and the glints of light on sails, a lighthouse, and coastal rocks. The richness of the virtually monochromatic image is undoubtedly enhanced by nearly invisible small touches of orange and green pastel, applied on the foreground sand and the lapping water.
Artwork Details
- Title: Entrance to Harbor—Moonlight
- Artist: David Johnson Kennedy (1816/17–1898)
- Date: 1881
- Culture: American
- Medium: Watercolor, gouache, graphite, pastel, and sgraffito on white wove paper coated with gray gouache
- Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 15 in. (23.5 x 38.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1968
- Object Number: 68.41
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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