Lake George, New York

Lake George, New York, painted in 1872 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is another of the remarkable final series of lake paintings Kensett produced before his death. Lake George's particular quality — a narrow, elongated lake framed by the Adirondacks, its water exceptionally clear — made it ideal for Kensett's Luminist interest in the relationship between water, sky, and reflected light. His 1872 paintings of the lake progressively stripped away the staffage of figures, boats, and foreground detail that had been standard in Hudson River School landscapes, leaving compositions of almost pure atmosphere. The Met's collection preserves multiple Lake George canvases from this final summer, making it the primary institution for understanding Kensett's late achievement.

Oil on canvas with Kensett's characteristic low horizon pushing sky into prominence — the lake occupying the lower two-thirds of the canvas as a horizontal plane reflecting the atmospheric conditions above. The surrounding Adirondack ridgelines appear as dark silhouettes framing the luminous center of sky and water.