The Rockwell Kent Project - Monhegan

The Monhegan Island Paintings of Rockwell Kent

One could say that Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was fresh out of his art studio and philosophical training when he stepped foot on Monhegan Island, Maine in 1905 [That is, according to most accounts. He may have arrived a year earlier, when considering the date on one of his paintings, 1904. Fig.1]. His tutorials with William Merritt Chase, Abbott Thayer, Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller, – plein-air and in the classroom – as well as his architectural studies at Columbia University, combined with his introduction to socialism, vegetarianism, “free love,” pageantry, music and other social and personal explorations, were all the ingredients that were necessary to get him fired up to experience life, and express it in his artwork. All he needed was the proverbial garden in which to plant his heretofore untested cultivation, and the terrain, the sea, and the community of Monhegan were just such fertile grounds.

And fired up he was. He possessed a boundless spiritedness that stuck with him to his final days. When he was not laboring as a carpenter, lobster fisherman, or privy digger (in order to maintain his keep) he eagerly mustered the stamina to paint and draw . What he decidedly did not have time for was cataloguing the artwork that he created, like his contemporaries and New York School of Art classmates Edward Hopper and George Bellows did. That has been left to the historian who would sift through the endless volumes of his letters and published writings, as well as the period reviews and biographies, in order to create a catalogue, or as I say, a checklist of the Monhegan paintings. Therefore, perhaps like no other time during his artistic career, the art that he created on Monhegan (especially the early years – circa 1905-1910 – versus the latter – 1948-1953) has only roughly been documented.

I say “roughly documented” because there are a number of challenges to cataloguing Kent’s paintings.

– Titles. Kent occasionally changed the titles of his works – Toiling on the Sea later became Toilers of the Sea; he left many works untitled, which others have since named; and sometimes he encouraged new owners to name the paintings themselves. As a result, a painting could and often does have numerous titles by which it is known. And, Kent applied tacking margin titles to paintings that he placed into storage before he left for his extended stay in Newfoundland (1914-1915), as referenced below (Fig. 2).

– Altering compositions. The artist is known to have altered some of the paintings that remained in his studio – Maine Headland, Winter, originally rendered in 1907 (Fig. 3 and 4), was reworked before he included it in his gift to the Soviet Union in 1960. And as I mention in my book Rockwell Kent’s Forgotten Landscapes (co-authored with Ellen Pearce), some of the paintings that were kept in (poor) storage with a friend (over several years) required restoration, and in the process of restoring Kent applied a contemporary look to a former style.

– Dates. Unless a painting is known to have been completed on a given date, and/or if the artist left us with a clue as to when he “touched up” or “finished” a painting (as he occasionally would say), identifying the date or dates becomes a guessing game.

– Medium. The artist would paint on canvas, tobacco box covers, scraps of wood, and, usually later, plywood, masonite and canvas board.

– Style. Kent’s reworking or restoring an early Monhegan painting in later years has, as I mentioned above, created some confusion. Having said that, a viewer will often notice a stark difference between the paintings of these two time periods. Generally speaking, the earlier paintings were developed through a method of applying overlapping, abrupt, seemingly random brush strokes, most often in somber hues, on which he would build his composition. In contrast, the later paintings, again generally speaking, are more stylized, softer, lighter; the brush strokes, at times, appear as seamless swaths of brighter pigments. (Fig. 5 and 6)

– Signature. As Kent was developing his painting technique and style his signature was also evolving. It is not uncommon to see signatures during the first decade of the 20th century appears all in upper case letters, as well as upper case first letters with the rest of the name in lower case. Often times the artist will place a period after his name, and a date may follow. And in some cases, he placed a dash after his name, followed by a location (“Monhegan,” for instance), another dash, and then the date. If the artist reworked a painting one can occasionally find the original signature and date buried under a new layer of paint (see Fig. 4). On rare occasion one will see the first name initialed, followed by a period, and “Kent” spelled out. In some of the later paintings one will see a signature underlined. Richard West surmised that with age Kent’s hand was less steady and therefore he applied the straight line on which to place his signature.

Taking all of these observations into consideration, identifying and cataloguing the Monhegan paintings (in particular) has been and continues to be like piecing together a puzzle. With that in mind I am sure that I have not documented all of the Monhegan paintings. I will, however, illustrate most of those that I currently have catalogued.

One more point: Kent’s paintings have been subject to copying: sometimes by students who are attempting to understand how the artist painted, though also by copyists who have more nefarious intentions. As knowledgeable as I am about Rockwell Kent’s artwork, I, too, can be fooled by a great copyist.

In the manner of my (with co-author Richard West: 1934-2026), “Annotated Checklist of Alaska Paintings by Rockwell Kent,” I am assigning a checklist number for reference purposes. Anyone who may be interested in acquiring additional information regarding a specific painting is welcomed and encouraged to inquire, with the understanding that I provide this website unfunded and a researcher’s fee may apply.

With 48 years of expertise in the art and life of Rockwell Kent (as of 2026), – from the Rockwell Kent Collection at the State University of New York – Plattsburgh to The Rockwell Kent Legacies at the Kent estate, to today as an independent scholar – I have provided and continue to provide research, consulting, literary, and curatorial services to art galleries, auction houses, museums, private collectors, and academicians. To facilitate said services I can be contacted via 315-542-1643, rkentiana@yahoo.com, and rkentiana.ferris@gmail.com.

Photography by Mishalanie Photography.