Winter Sunset with Snow

John Joseph Enneking (American, 1841-1916); Winter Sunset with Snow; New England, 1876-1916; Oil on academy board; 10” x 14” (painting without frame).

John Joseph Ennneking was a landscape artist associated with the Boston School, praised as “one the most inspiring influences in the American art world” by the Boston Globe in 1916. Enneking drew inspiration from several overlapping artistic movements in Europe and America, including Impressionism, Tonalism, and the Barbizon School, blending those styles in his highly regarded landscape paintings of New England. He studied abroad in France and Germany, associating with Jean Millet, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissaro, before settling in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston and opening his studio in 1876.

Enneking was known for his moody and tonalist style, capturing in paint New England landscapes at sunset, twilight, or early dawn. As a plein-air painter, Enneking’s reverence for nature and advocacy for environmental conservation led him to be elected a Park Commissioner in Boston. Enneking was honored throughout his lifetime: a year before his death, over a thousand people attended a dinner in his honor at the Copley Plaza, where he was crowned with a laurel wreath.