Illustrations of Rockwell Kent Review

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(More customer reviews)My father had several Modern Library books that were illustrated by Rockwell Kent, including "Moby Dick" and "The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer." For years I have assumed that those memorable plates were wood block prints, which seemed the best explanation for Kent's masterful use of black in his work. But reading "The Illustrations of Rockwell Kent: 231 Examples from Books, Magazines and Advertising Art" I am rather stunned to learn these are ink drawings. However, this only makes them even more impressive.
Rockwell Kent was arguably the most important American book illustrator of the 1920s and 1930s, although there are some early examples from 1914 and 1915 and work from as late as 1963, including some marvelous ship drawings for "A Treasury of Sea Stories." His art was highly individualized style of formalized realism that looks glorious in black & white. This volume represents the first time that the best of his illustrations from these various sources. In addition to the aforementioned classic books there are selections from "Candide," "Salamina," "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare," and "Goethe's Faust." But the volume includes lesser-known works such as "A Basket of Poses," "Venus and Adonis," and "To Thee, America!"
This is not simply a collection of Kent's illustrations. Fridolf Johnson, editor of "The American Artist," not only helped select this artwork, he also provides a detailed introductory essay tracing Kent's development as an illustrator along with captions for the illustrations and an annotated bibliography. Because the reproductions are in black & white there are some illustrations that were originally done with tints in two colors (e.g., "The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio), so that effect is lost. But if you did not read the captions you would never know the reproductions were lacking in any regard. This volume should be especially appealing to both those who remember stumbling upon Kent's distinctive artwork in former days, or those who are interested in what can be accomplished with black ink on white paper.

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Rockwell Kent's Forgotten Landscape Review

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(More customer reviews)"Rockwell Kent's Forgotten Landscapes" presents 47 full-color, full-page paintings which he gave to Russia in 1960, and which have not been seen in the U.S. since. This treasure trove of his "forgotten" paintings was reproduced by Scott R. Ferris and Ellen Pearce in a 96-page coffee-table format.
By their direct simplicity, these paintings may startle viewers, especially those who revel in the nuances of paintings by impressionists, for Kent's pictures have sharp lines, bright colors, and deep shadows, and show the use of artistic license here and there. Edward Hopper's "houses" are done in a somewhat similar style. Kent's painting locales included the Adirondacks (his home), Greenland, Maine (Monhegan), Tierra del Fuego, Alaska and Ireland.
After studying the collection this reviewer emerged convinced that he has a better grasp of North Greenland, where the sun wheels around 360 degrees while hanging just above the horizon during summer months and casting a sort of perpetual evening light and long shadows. Kent's paintings often show no human or animal life, but there is enough inclusion of Indian activities as to cause cultural anthropologists to consider his paintings to be rare records of this primitive, by-gone lifestyle. Kent's portrait of Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies was so startling in color and composition as to make this reviewer actually gasp in wonder at its beauty.
In addition to the big color plates, the authors have included 36 smaller black & white pictures which amplify 15 pages of scholarly text by Ferris, in which he discusses the genealogies of selected pictures and their believed locations abroad. The text is backed by 95 footnotes, many of which are interesting in their own right.
Appendix I lists "variant titles to some of Kent's basic scenes." Appendix II organizes his "non-paintings" into engravings, lithographs, books and brochures, manuscripts and reproductions and portfolios -- all wonderful guides to other Kent works. Then there follow a Bibliography and Index.
Ellen Pearce's major contribution is a seven-page essay on the life and political entanglements of Rockwell Kent, which climaxed in his being summoned before Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Committee on Government Operations. Further, the State Department refused to renew his travel visa until the Supreme Court overturned its ruling. All this disheartened and embittered Kent and predisposed him to bequeath his "great collection" to the Russians, who had received an earlier show of his with warmth and enthusiasm.
For those who heretofore have known Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) only by his book and magazine illustrations, this is a grand introduction to his work in oils. One hopes another book someday will publish his collected works so that Americans can even better appreciate a great native-born but forgotten artist.

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