The Rhythm of Eternity
The Life and Art of Rockwell Kent
Summary
This book emphasizes the interplay between Kent’s public persona and his private self. A man of considerable charm and vitality, he led an outwardly tempestuous existence – especially in affairs of the heart – but, at the same time, he created much of his best art
in solitude. He was a romantic who fell violently in love and then decisively out of it. He loved many women, but he thought only of his own needs in his relationships with them; he thought the profession of artist gave him leeway to think only of his own needs. He strove, sometimes with great difficulty, to achieve material needs, but his art is replete with transcendental yearnings. By confronting the contradictions between the artist and the man, this book offers the first sustained study to connect those opposing sides of Kent’s character. In doing so, it breaks new ground: rather than treating his work and his private life in isolation, it reveals how the tensions between the two shaped both—and in the process uncovers, with unprecedented clarity, the tortured soul of one of America’s most important modernist artists.
This is the first volume in Dissident Biographies, a new series.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Contrarian
- CHAPTER 1 The Lost Boy (1882–1887)
- CHAPTER 2 Apprentice (1888–1905)
- CHAPTER 3 Laborer (1905–1907)
- CHAPTER 4 The “Self” and the “Better Self” (1908–1911)
- CHAPTER 5 Carpenter (1910–1913)
- CHAPTER 6 Expatriate (1914–1915)
- CHAPTER 7 Satirist (1915–1918)
- CHAPTER 8 Survivor (1918–1919)
- CHAPTER 9 Gentleman Farmer (1919–1922)
- CHAPTER 10 Lover (1922–1928)
- CHAPTER 11 Illustrator (1925–1949)
- CHAPTER 12 Explorer (1929–1932)
- CHAPTER 13 Advocate (1933–1945)
- CHAPTER 14 Politico (1945–1971)
- Epilogue by Way of Four Self-Portraits
- Short Titles and Abbreviations
- Endnotes
- Index
Figures
Figure 1: Rockwell Kent in Punta Arenas, Chile. 1922. Photographer unknown
Figure 2: Toilers of the Sea. 1907. 96.5 × 118 cm. Oil on canvas. New Britain Museum of Art
Figure 3: Winter, Monhegan Island. 1907. Oil on canvas. 86 × 118 cm. Metropolitans Museum of Art
Figure 4: Men and Mountains. 1909. Oil on canvas. 83.8 × 109.8 cm. Columbus Museum of Art
Figure 5: Down to the Sea. 1910. Oil on canvas. 108 × 142.9 cm. Brooklyn Museum
Figure 6: Burial of a Young Man. c. 1908–1911. Oil on canvas. 71 × 133 cm. Phillips Collection
Figure 7: The House of Dread. c. 1914–1917. Oil on canvas. 70.5 × 95.9 cm. Plattsburgh State Art Museum
Figure 8: Portrait of a Child (My Daughter Clara). 1914. Oil on canvas. 54 × 72 cm. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Figure 9: Drawings by “Hogarth, Jr.” for Vanity Fair, Puck and A Basket of Poses. 1915–1924
Figure 10: Alaska Winter. 1919. Oil on canvas. 86 × 110 cm. Anchorage Museum
Figure 11: Resurrection Bay, Alaska (Blue and Gold). 1919. 30 × 38 cm. Bowdoin College
Figure 12: North Wind. 1919. Oil on canvas mounted on hardboard. 104 × 86 cm. The Phillips Collection
Figure 13: Frontispiece. Wilderness. 1920. Private Collection
Figure 14: Dedication Page. Wilderness. 1920. Private Collection
Figure 15: Home Building. Wilderness. 1920. Private Collection
Figure 16: On the Height. Wilderness. 1920. Private Collection
Figure 17: The Mad Hermit. Wilderness. 1920. Private Collection
Figure 18: The Trapper. 1921. Oil on canvas. 86 × 112 cm. Whitney Museum of American Art
Figure 19: Admiralty Sound, Tierra del Fuego. 1925. 86 × 111 cm. Oil on canvas. Heritage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Figure 20: Ahab. Moby Dick. 1930
Figure 21: Moby Dick. Moby Dick. 1930
Figure 22: Frontispiece. Leaves of Grass. 1936
Figure 23: Illustrations from Paul Bunyan. 1941
Figure 24: Early November, North Greenland. 1932. Oil on canvas. 86 × 110 cm. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Figure 25: December Eight, 1941 (The Open Road). 1941. Oil on canvas. 109 × 180 cm. Plattsburgh State Art Museum
Figure 26: Heavy, Heavy Hangs over Thy Head. 1946. Lithograph. 23 × 30 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Details
- Pages
- XII, 136
- Publication Year
- 2026
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783034356350
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783034356367
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9783034356343
- DOI
- 10.3726/b23479
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2026 (April)
- Keywords
- Biography Modernism American art history
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2026. XII, 136 pp., 31 b/w ill.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
