John Frederick Kensett

As a boy, John Frederick Kensett apprenticed in his father’s engraving shop. He worked as an engraver in New Haven and New York for several years but was frustrated with his profession and truly wanted to be a painter. In the 1840s he spent seven years in England, France, and Italy “feasting on the glorious works of the Old Masters.” After his return to America, he joined several influential art clubs and helped organize the 1864 Metropolitan Fair. In 1870 he became a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kensett had a large circle of artist friends and was known for his active social life and love of whisky and cigars. He died of pneumonia in 1872 after diving into freezing water to retrieve the body of a woman who had fallen from her coach and drowned. (Driscoll and Howat, John Frederick Kensett, An American Master, 1985)