John Frederick Kensett, March 22, 1816–December 14, 1872, was an American landscape painter and engraver associated with the second generation of the Hudson River School.

He attended Cheshire Academy and learned engraving in the shops of his father, Thomas Kensett, and his uncle Alfred Daggett; he later worked with the engraver Peter Maverick. From 1840 to 1847 he studied art in Europe, including drawing at the École Préparation des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Kensett traveled with Asher B. Durand, John W. Casilear, and Thomas P. Rossiter, and maintained close ties with fellow landscape painters including Benjamin Champney. He took no formal pupils, though the National Academy of Design notes his guidance of James Suydam. His works are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.