Johann Carmiencke

(1810-1867)

German-born painter to the Royal Court of Denmark, Carmiencke came to America in 1851, fully trained and forty-one years old. In the relatively short sixteen years he spent in America, he produced a sufficiently large body of work to make an impression and be seen as a 19th-century Hudson River painter. Nevertheless, at the time I acquired this piece, in 1969, he was not an especially well-known name. But I responded to the drama and excitement of the work. I felt it was certainly as good as many of the first-tier Hudson River painters and better than most second-tier artists. One of my better-remembered lessons emerged from the relatively innocent questions I asked the New York art dealer from whom I bought the painting. As we stood together examining the picture, I asked him, “Where do you think this picture is?” He paused, thought and said, “Son, its wherever you want it to be.”