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Lot Essay
A student of Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase and an early proponent of the Ashcan School, Rockwell Kent would go on to develop a style of modern realism inspired by a broad variety of international locales that would bring the artist wide acclaim. At the urging of Henri, a trip to Monhegan Island in 1905 would prove to be an important visit for the young artist early in his career. Set ten miles off the mid-coast of Maine, the unique landscape of the isolated island was an immediate inspiration for Kent. "The sharp edges and contrasts of the rugged Maine coast, together with the mysterious aspects of nature, were particularly stimulating to Kent's dynamic character and set the pattern for his future work." (D. Wigmore Fine Art, Annual Exhibition, New York, 2004, p. 65)
"There had been a Maine school of landscape artists for some time. Kent, it seems, sought subjects not previously recorded, but still containing the drama and grandeur found in the confrontation of sea and rugged coastline." (K. Koeniger, ed., American Reflections: Paintings 1830-1940 From the Collections of Pomona College and Scripps College, Claremont, California, exhibition catalogue, 1984, p. 124) Over the next several years, Kent's travels took him to Newfoundland, Alaska, France, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland. At each locale, Kent embraced the native topography and rendered his compositions with his own distinct style of boldly outlined forms, composed with a linear clarity and saturated color bathed in a cool glow of light. The architectural presence of the natural landscape that Kent had witnessed on his first trip to Monhegan in 1905 would remain with the artist throughout is life and is clearly evident in the present work, Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies.
Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies presents a scene of the rugged, un-spoiled grandeur of nature. The angled peak of the mountain face rises from the center of the composition with linear clarity, brilliantly illuminated with a warm glow of sunlight. The strict horizontal plane of the foreground elevates the dramatic perspective of the composition and immediately places the viewer in the scene gazing upwards at the towering trees and snow-capped peak. By keeping a relatively consistent palette throughout the work and blocking in larger areas of color and outlining forms in light and shadow, Kent's Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies takes on a more modern and abstract aesthetic.
By introduction through Macbeth Gallery, in 1950 Kent met Jim ('J.J.') Ryan, a rock climbing enthusiast and grandson of the renowned financier Thomas Fortune Ryan. Ryan would become the leading patron of Kent and commissioned the artist to paint Mt. Assiniboine, which resulted in two paintings: the present work, and another version showing an almost identical view of the mountain peak looking across Sunburst Lake, which resides in the collection of The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Ryan would go on to assemble an impressive breadth of Kent's work, acquiring an approximate total of 30 oil paintings.
This painting will be included in Scott Ferris' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
This painting will be included in the catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Richard V. West.
"There had been a Maine school of landscape artists for some time. Kent, it seems, sought subjects not previously recorded, but still containing the drama and grandeur found in the confrontation of sea and rugged coastline." (K. Koeniger, ed., American Reflections: Paintings 1830-1940 From the Collections of Pomona College and Scripps College, Claremont, California, exhibition catalogue, 1984, p. 124) Over the next several years, Kent's travels took him to Newfoundland, Alaska, France, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland. At each locale, Kent embraced the native topography and rendered his compositions with his own distinct style of boldly outlined forms, composed with a linear clarity and saturated color bathed in a cool glow of light. The architectural presence of the natural landscape that Kent had witnessed on his first trip to Monhegan in 1905 would remain with the artist throughout is life and is clearly evident in the present work, Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies.
Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies presents a scene of the rugged, un-spoiled grandeur of nature. The angled peak of the mountain face rises from the center of the composition with linear clarity, brilliantly illuminated with a warm glow of sunlight. The strict horizontal plane of the foreground elevates the dramatic perspective of the composition and immediately places the viewer in the scene gazing upwards at the towering trees and snow-capped peak. By keeping a relatively consistent palette throughout the work and blocking in larger areas of color and outlining forms in light and shadow, Kent's Mt. Assiniboine: Canadian Rockies takes on a more modern and abstract aesthetic.
By introduction through Macbeth Gallery, in 1950 Kent met Jim ('J.J.') Ryan, a rock climbing enthusiast and grandson of the renowned financier Thomas Fortune Ryan. Ryan would become the leading patron of Kent and commissioned the artist to paint Mt. Assiniboine, which resulted in two paintings: the present work, and another version showing an almost identical view of the mountain peak looking across Sunburst Lake, which resides in the collection of The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Ryan would go on to assemble an impressive breadth of Kent's work, acquiring an approximate total of 30 oil paintings.
This painting will be included in Scott Ferris' forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
This painting will be included in the catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Richard V. West.