Born June 21, 1882, Tarrytown Heights, New York
Died March 13, 1971, near Plattsburg, New York

So much has been written about Rockwell Kent, that I will concentrate on just a few areas. His early schooling in architecture at Columbia did not give him the satisfaction he found in art, but in the early years of his career it proved to be a reliable way to gain employment for money when art and family resources could not provide.

The key teachers in his life were William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, Kenneth Hayes Miller and Abbot Thayer. In his early years he needed to wander, with or without his wife and family. In 1912, already married to his first wife, Kathleen Whiting, he built his own small house on Monhegan Island, Maine and there in solitude, began serious painting. In 1914 he and his family went to Newfoundland but his fondness for German songs at what was the beginning of the Great War, made him somewhat persona non grata. He love for German song and literature probably came from an Austrian nanny he had while young.

In 1918, with his 9 year old son, he travels to Alaska and spends a winter on a lonely island writing and drawing. The illustrated book “Wilderness,” 1918, results from this. Back from Alaska, he sets off for Tierra Del Fuego, which resulted in another illustrated book, “Voyaging”, 1919.

By 1927 he has divorced Kathleen and married Francis Lee. They move to an old farm in the Adirondacks, just outside of Au Sable Forks, New York. They renovate the farm and he names it “Asgaard”, meaning “farm of the gods”. In 1929 he needs to travel again, so he and two companions take a small boat to Greenland. His companions know nothing about boats and they are shipwrecked on the Greenland shore. Kent travels overland to arrange rescue. This adventure results in the illustrated book “N by E”, 1930. He goes back to Greenland several times. A local widow becomes his housekeeper. Her story and the Greenland story are in the illustrated book Salamina, 1935.

He was commissioned in the 1930’s to do a mural in the U.S. Post Office, Washington, D.C. and in the Federal Building in the Room of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Both were completed, but because of Kent’s known socialist-cause support, the subsequent flap over who had done them did not die down quickly. He remarked in his later years that his upbringing in a higher social class circle caused him to see a vast distinction in society between a few with ‘lots’ and lots with little, leading him to a social reform philosophy that was to earn him both praise and scorn.

In 1940 he has acquired a third wife, Shirley (Sally) Johnstone and now politics beckon. I’m glossing over his many social justice crusades but in 1948 he runs for Congress on the American Labor Party Ticket and is soundly defeated. Years later Senator McCarthy accuses him of communist party membership. Among other pieces of evidence was Kent’s hosting of a dinner party for Paul Robeson. While Kent espoused many socialist causes, wrote for their periodicals and contributed money to their causes, he never was a party member. But the McCarthy accusations and the restrictions put on his travel by the U.S. State Department so infuriated him that when he was finally cleared of restrictions he presented over 80 of his paintings to the Russian people. They are housed in both the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and at the National Gallery of Armenia. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967.

In addition to the books listed above, other well noted illustrated books by Kent are “Candide”, “Moby Dick”, Canterbury Tales and Beowulf. He worked often with Elmer Adler of Pynson Printers and with Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. He illustrated Selma Robinson’s book of poems, “City Child”, without charge as an encouragement to Cerf to publish her work.

Other books that will give you a feel for Kent and his causes and his work are as follows:

“Rockwellkentiana”, 1933, contains a series of essays by Kent, both published and not previously published on his ideas of the arts and how artists need to be treated. Carl Zigrosser prepared a catalogue raisonne of Kent's prints up to that time that is included along with black and white reproductions of many of his works.

“An American Saga, The Life and Times of Rockwell Kent”, by David Traxel. A good biographical study.

“Rockwell Kent’s Forgotten Landscapes”, 1998, by Scott Ferris and Ellen Pierce. A review of the Russian works.

“The View From Asgaard”, 1999, by Caroline Welsh and Scott Ferris. A review of works produced in and around the farm.

“Distant Shores”, 2000, by Constance Martonstance Mart 2000, by Constance Martin. A review of his work on his travels, but primarily the Greenland work.

The established Catalogue Raisonne on Kent’s prints is “The Prints of Rockwell Kent”, Revised edition, 2002, Dan Burne-Jones.