Description: Landscape. View of Kent's dairy farm, Asgaard, in AuSable, New York. Detailed view of clover field in foreground, dairy farm in middle ground at left, and Adirondack mountains in distance.
Label Text: This painting depicts the dairy farm Asgaard (or Farm of the Gods) where Kent sought to escape and “cultivate his garden.” Compressed between the shadowed foreground and pale sky, the bands of light that streak across the field and Adirondack mountains evoke a sense of reverence, reflecting Kent’s artistic and spiritual quest to find truth in light. The rhythmic pattern of light, gradation of color and realistic portrayal of this serene landscape embody the sentiment of “romantic nationalism” that American democracy inspired in him. Kent was buried in the nearby woods, only a short walk from the barn and farmhouse.
Caroline Stern, Class of 2011
This intensely observed view of the artist’s Adirondacks retreat—the working dairy farm Asgaard (or Farm of the Gods) in Au Sable Forks, New York—came to Amherst in 1972 as a gift from Mrs. Winifred L. Arms in memory of her husband, Robert A. Arms, Class of 1927. A commercial artist for Tiffany and Company, Mrs. Arms also donated a significant collection of English decorative arts objects to the College. EEB, 2008: 1821 Society brochure
Tags: fields; households; sky; environment Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1972.114 |