ROCKWELL KENT (1882-1971)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

Rockwell Kent was a free spirited artist and a reverent worshipper of the wilderness. Transcendentalist writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman provided thematic ideologies for his works, while his various trips to Alaska, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Tierra del Fuego further provided the material that Kent used to become one of the most influential American painters and illustrators of the early 20th century.

During his years as a student in New York, he was exposed to the works of his contemporaries George Bellows (1882-1925), Man Ray (1890-1976), and Marguerite (1887-1968) and William Zorach (1887-1966). Once in Newfoundland, he began to work in the style of the Symbolists. Though Kent adhered to many of the philosophies of New York’s circle of avant-garde artists, his style never strayed far from that of the Symbolists or German Expressionists. His paintings often include strong lines and figural imagery, most likely derived from his background in architecture.

A deep sense of spirituality is present in many of his paintings. In his Greenland series of the 1920s and 1930s, imaginary beings are placed in idyllic landscapes. Kent often reclaimed this basic compositional arrangement for many of the government commissioned murals he executed and for his work in print advertising (Wien 109). Furthermore, his brush and India ink drawings portray close similarities to the relief etchings of the late 18th and early 19th-century British artist William Blake. As in many of Blake’s illustrations, Kent’s numerous designs often suggest the intricate relationship between the universe, mankind, and the Divine (Wien 51). In paintings such as The Fire Bird (1927), a monumental-sized cherubim-like figure radiates in the heavens above a seaside coast, while a god-like figure hovers over a small church in the painting Russian Mass (1928).

Kent’s career is often compared to that of his contemporary Marsden Hartley’s as both artists were also published writers and often painted works filled with philosophical and spiritual concerns (Wien 48). Coincidently, they also struggled at times to find a place in society. Hartley never quite fit in due to his homosexuality, while Kent fell out of favor because of his associations with pro-Communist organizations.

Closer to the end of his life, the US establishment’s failure to accept Kent’s personal ideologies only grew more intense, ultimately leading to a lack of support for his art. As a result, Kent donated over forty of his own paintings to public collections in Russia, the Ukraine, and Armenia (Wien 79). Today, Kent is best remembered for his position as a top book illustrator during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of his most triumphal masterpieces include illustrations for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Voltaire’s Candide, Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, and illustrations for his own manuscripts.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

1967 Lenin Peace Prize

Academy of Fine Art, USSR (honorary member)
American Artists Congress
Art League of America
National Institute of Arts and Letters
Union of American Artists
Woodstock Art Association

COLLECTIONS

Art Institute of Chicago
Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, IL
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, UT
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
Crocker Art Museum, CA
Currier Gallery of Art, NH
Dayton Art Institute, OH
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
Harvard University Art Museums Database, MA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, MA
Montana Museum of Art and Culture, Missoula
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
New York Public Library
Plattsburgh State University Art Museum, New York
Portland Museum of Art, ME
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College, CA
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY
Sheldon Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE
Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Southern Alleghenies Museum, PA
Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago, IL
The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland
The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
University of Alaska Museum Fine Arts Collection
University of Kentucky Art Museum
Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, MN
Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA

CHRONOLOGY

1882 Born on June 25 in Tarrytown Heights, NY
1900 Attends William Merritt Chase Summer School of Art. Enrolls in Columbia University and studies architecture.
1903 Leaves Columbia and attends New York School of Art full-time
1905 Moves to Monhegan Island, ME, which remains his permanent address until 1910
1908 Marries Kathleen Whiting
1909 Son, Rockwell Kent III, is born
1910 Teaches at Monhegan Summer School of Art. Travels to Newfoundland
1911 Daughter Kathleen is born. Son Karl is born. Moves to Greenwich Village
1913 Participates in Armory Show. Daughter Clara is born.
1914 Moves to New Foundland
1915 Son Karl dies. Daughter Hildegarde (Barbara) born. Family moves to Staten Island, NY.
1916 Begins to submit drawings to Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair under the pseudonym “Hogarth, Jr.”
1918 Gains early membership in the Whitney Studio Club, NY. Travels to Alaska.
1919 Returns to New York. Establishes Rockwell Kent, Inc. (dissolved in 1922).
1920 Son Gordon is born
1922 Travels to Tierra del Fuego
1924 First retrospective held at Wildenstein Galleries, NY. Travels with family to Southern France.
1925 Divorces Kathleen Whiting
1926 Marries Frances Lee Higgins. Moves to Greenwich Village
1927 Moves to Woodstock, NY and works as editor for Creative Arts magazine.
1929 Sails to Greenland and on to Copenhagen
1930 Completes cartoons for ceiling of Cape Cinema in Cape Cod
1932 Returns to New York
1934 Departs to Copenhagen. Esquire magazine published his writings about travels through Greenland.
1935 Returns to New York and travels to Alaska for the preparation of a government commissioned mural.
1936 Travels to Puerto Rico to prepare mural commissioned by U.S. Treasury Department.
1937 Completes two government commissioned murals. Visits Rio de Janeiro
1939 Denies charge of Communist Party membership before the House Un-American Activities Commitee
1940 Divorces Frances Lee. Marries Shirley “Sally” Johnstone
1944 Named president of International Workers Order. Paints commissioned mural for the Air Transport Association
1947 Visits Monhegan Island
1948 Runs an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in New York State
1949 Over the next two years, he travels across Europe to attend meetings that promote world peace
1950 Kent’s passport to travel abroad is revoked by U.S. Department of State
1951-3 Paints on Monhegan Island and Travels to the Canadian Rockies
1953 Appears before the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee and when asked about memberships in Communist Party. Begins auto-biography.
1958 Regains passport. Travels with wife to Ireland, London, Paris, Switzerland and the Soviet Uninon
1960 Gives the people of the Soviet Union a substantial collection of his work
1971 Dies on March 13, in Plattsburgh, NY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Falk, Peter Hastings ed. Who Was Who in American Art: 1564-1975. Vol. II. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.
2. Wien, Jake Milgram. Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 2005.
3. Kent, Rockwell and Carl Zigrosser. Rockwellkentiana. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1933.
4. Kent, Rockwell. This is My Own. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1940.
5. Traxel, David. An American Saga: The Life and Times of Rockwell Kent. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1980.