Rockwell Kent - Legacy

Legacy

When Kent died, The New York Times described him as "... a thoughtful, troublesome, profoundly independent, odd and kind man who made an imperishable contribution to the art of bookmaking in the United States." This cursory summing-up of an American life has been superseded by richer, more accurate accounts of the scope of the artist's influential life as a painter and writer. More balanced reappraisals of the artist's life and work have been mounted, most recently, by the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and Owen D. Young Library at St. Lawrence University (Canton, NY) in the autumn of 2012, the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME) during the spring through autumn of 2012, the Bennington Museum (VT) in the summer of 2012, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the spring through summer of 2012. Additional exhibitions and celebrations are planned in Winona, MN for early 2013. Among the many notes of increased recognition is the appearance of one of Kent's pen-and-ink drawings from Moby Dick on a U.S. postage stamp, part of the 2001 commemorative panel celebrating American illustrators, including Maxfield Parrish, Frederic Remington, and Norman Rockwell.

Recently, prominent American and Canadian writers have found much gold to mine in Kent's improbable life of adventure and accomplishment. The year he spent in Newfoundland, for example, is fictionally (and very loosely) recalled by Canadian writer Michael Winter in The Big Why, his 2004 Winterset Award-winning novel. And certain qualities of the protagonist of Russell Banks's 2008 novel The Reserve are inspired by aspects of Kent's complex personality. Kent is also a protagonist in Steve Martin's 2010 novel, "An Object of Beauty," and is a chapter subject in Douglas Brinkley's 2011 history, "The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom: 1879-1960."

The Archives of American Art is the repository for Kent's voluminous correspondence.