www.PeterJungFineArt.com/Artist Roster/American ArtistsArtist Name: John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916) Medium: Oil on Board Size:10" x 14", signed and dated 1899 lower right Price: SOLD
One of New England's prominent landscape artists of the late nineteenth century, John Joseph Enneking painted in a variety of styles including Hudson River School, Tonalism and Impressionism as well as illustration art. Although he cannot be easily slotted into any one of those categories, he was best-known for Tonalist forest scenes at twilight. He was also one of the most financially successful artists of his era.
In the 1870s, he frequently traveled to Europe and became a friend of Tonalist Camille Corot and Barbizon School painter Jean Millet. Their subdued palette dominated by shades of brown and green deeply influenced his painting.
Enneking was born on an Ohio farm near Minster and was orphaned as a teenager. During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army and was badly injured. After that, he returned to Cincinnati and in 1868, went to Boston where he studied lithography and painting with Samuel Gerry. He also found the surrounding New England countryside so attractive that the city became his adopted home. Later in his career, he spent his summers at North Newry, Maine, and also painted in the White Mountains.
Like so many artists of his generation, Enneking combined an early training in lithography with later study in Europe. In 1872, he left the United States for four years abroad, studying landscape painting at the Munich Academy in Germany and figure painting in Paris where his teacher was Leon Bonnat. He also worked with the French Barbizon-School landscape painters, Charles Daubigny and Louis Boudin, and it is rumored he painted with Impressionist Claude Monet but no documentation exists.
In 1876, he returned to the Boston area, settling at Hyde Park, and two years later had an exhibition that "sealed his reputation." (Falk 1050). He also was an active illustrator with commissions from "Scribner's", "Harpers", and other magazines.
Enneking's paintings were honored throughout his lifetime, and in 1915, a testimonial dinner was held for him with over one thousand persons attending.
