Interior, Alaskan cabin, Resurrection Bay, Alaska, 1918–19 |
After his expulsion from
Newfoundland, Kent and his family returned to New York. Money woes
were mounting (Kathleen had given birth to their fourth child). Despite
his financial straits, he began laying plans for a lengthy escape to Alaska,
a last-ditch effort to salvage his career as a painter.
When art collector Ferdinand Howald agreed to advance him the funds
to support his family, Kent’s Alaskan odyssey drew near. Though eager
to enter the wild, he did not look forward to the loneliness.
Kathleen refused to leave the children with her parents and accompany
him, but she agreed to let 9-year-old Rocky join his father on
the journey.
While exploring Resurrection Bay in a borrowed rowboat, Kent and young
Rocky hailed an old man in a motor-driven dory. “Come with me,” said
71-year-old Lars Olsen, the sole human inhabitant of Fox Island. “I show
you the place to live.”
Kent renovated an abandoned goat shed, turning it into a comfortable
home. For seven months he reveled in this world of isolation and creativity.
Homesick for his family, however, and fearing his marriage would
finally crumble, he left in March of 1919.
“Ah, god, and now the world again.”
The exhibitions of his paintings and drawings that followed re-launched
Kent’s career as an artist.
|
Rockwell Kent III,
known as Rocky, outside Kent’s Alaskan cabin.
|
|
|
 | Cabin Window, Alaska, 1918-19
oil on wood
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.178] |
 | Resurrection Bay, Alaska, 1918-19
oil on wood
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.179] |
 | Resurrection Bay, Alaska, 1918
ink on paper
Bequest of Sally Kent Gorton
[P52000.116] |
 | Frozen Fall, Alaska, 1919
oil on canvas
Gift of Sally Kent Gorton
[X1978.1.5] |
 | Resurrection Bay, Alaska, 1920
linecut on paper
Gift of Sally Kent Gorton
[X1978.2.113B] |
 | Killer Whales in Resurrection Bay, Alaska, c.1939
oil on canvas
Bequest of Dorothy Schumn Dayton
[P62008.1] |
|
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