| Notes |
- Ronald Pisano notes:
After some study in New York, including instruction from the landscape painter George Inness, Frederick W. Kost traveled abroad to complete his training in Munich and Paris. By the time he returned to New York, probably in the mid-1880's, he had developed a broad sketchy manner of painting and a tonal palette, which he used in painting local scenes near his home on Staten Island. In 1906 he purchased a summer home in Brookhaven, Long Island, near the Great South Bay, and began painting scenes of this area as well. "the country is flat, and fine trees are rare," reported writer Ernest Ingersoll. "In front of all stretches the broad, olive-green meadows of salt-marsh down to the shore of the still bay, beyond the low black line of the outer beach bounds the horizon." Poet Walt Whitman referred to the bay as an "inexhaustible sea-mine, full of treasures, that are really worth as much as the mines of California."
By the time Kost reached Brookhaven, these treasures, especially the bay's shellfish, had been much depleted. One that remained along the shores of the bay was a plentiful supply of salt hay growing in the coastal marshes. This hay was shipped to markets, such as the Bushwick Hay Market in Brooklyn, and sold as packing material, fodder and bedding for cattle, and mulch for crops. Kost's painting depicts the technique of harvesting this hay from sailing vessels. Like many other artists who were attracted to Long Island, Kost chose to focus on its serene atmosphere and nostalgic traditions. In 1920 he retired to his Brookhaven home and remained there until his death three years later.
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1861 - 1923 (61 years)
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