Rockwell Kent (1882–1971)
May, North Greenland, 1935-37
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Oil on canvas laid down on board
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34 1/8 x 44 1/2 inches
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Signed and dated lower left: Rockwell Kent 1935-7
Provenance
- The artist
- Joseph J. Ryan, Oak Ridge Estate, Arrington, Virginia, acquired from above, 1950
- William F. Illig, Esq., Erie, Pennsylvania, attorney of above, acquired from above, 1960s
- Estate of William F. Illig, Esq., Erie, Pennsylvania, 1989
- D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2004
- Deborah and Edward Shein, Seekonk, Massachusetts, acquired from above, 2004
- Private collection, Greenwich, Connecticut, acquired from above
- Collection J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, acquired from above
Exhibited
Greenland Paintings and Prints: Rockwell Kent, Gallery of Modern Masters, Washington, DC, November 1–30, 1937 (as Spring in Winter)
Rockwell Kent: Paintings and Graphics, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia; State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, Russia; Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Ukraine; State Museum of Fine Arts, Riga, Latvia; Kiev Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Ukraine, first solo exhibition of an American artist in USSR, December 12, 1957–1958
Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, June 23–October 15, 2005, no. 131
To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, November 8, 2008–March 1, 2009
Literature
Rockwell Kent, It’s Me O Lord: The Autobiography of Rockwell Kent (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1955), 398.
Jake Milgram Wien, Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2005), 73, 75, 181, fig. 57.
Samuel Scott et al., To the Ends of the Earth: Painting the Polar Landscape (Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2008), cover image, 12, 58, plate 49.
Note
Jake Milgram Wien writes, “Kent achieved his fullest expression of artistic modernity in Greenland.”[1] In May, North Greenland, Kent captures the beauty of the arctic waters and distant icy ranges. With its brilliant shades of turquoise, the painting exemplifies Kent’s mastery of color and geometric form.
Rockwell Kent scholar Scott Ferris states, “Kent’s defining signature is considered by many to be his oil paintings of Greenland of which May, North Greenland is one of his greatest achievements.”[2]
[1] Jake Milgram Wien, Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2005), 70.
[2] Scott Ferris, unpublished report.
Related Work
Greenland Coast, 1931, oil on canvas, 34 x 44 inches; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Early November: North Greenland, 1933, oil on canvas, 34 x 44 inches; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
catalogue
A Collector’s Journey
The catalogue, A Collector’s Journey, is designed specifically for museum directors and curators, by focusing solely on the appearance, provenance, and exhibition history of each painting. The collections are dynamic and will continue to expand as additional exceptional and historically important paintings are acquired.
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