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Mount Washington, from the Valley of Conway

1851
Not on view
This New Hampshire landscape centered on Mount Washington is based on a painting by Kensett (1851; Davis Museum, Wellesley College). The image was engraved and distributed by the American Art-Union, a New York institution that boasted nearly nineteen thousand subscribers at its height in 1849–50. For an annual fee of five dollars, each subscriber-member received a large print and was entered in a lottery to win original artworks shown at the Art-Union's Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the group's distribution network reached every state and contributed to the creation of a national market for landscapes, genre paintings, and small bronze sculptures. The system flourished for a limited period, however, with no lottery taking place in 1851, the year that this print was announced as part of a set of small engravings titled "Gallery of American Art, No. II." It was not published until 1853, the year that the Art-Union was forced to dissolve.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mount Washington, from the Valley of Conway
  • Series/Portfolio: Gallery of American Art, No. II
  • Engraver: James Smillie (American, Edinburgh 1807–1885 Poughkeepsie, New York)
  • Artist: After John Frederick Kensett (American, Cheshire, Connecticut 1816–1872 New York)
  • Printer: J. Dalton (American, active 1840–53)
  • Publisher: American Art-Union, New York (1838–51)
  • Date: 1851
  • Medium: Etching and engraving
  • Dimensions: Image: 7 in. × 10 7/16 in. (17.8 × 26.5 cm)
    Sheet: 11 7/16 × 14 5/8 in. (29 × 37.2 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gertrude and Thomas Jefferson Mumford Collection, Gift of Dorothy Quick Mayer, 1942
  • Object Number: 42.119.432
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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