And Women Must Weep

And Women Must Weep, is a 1937 lithograph by Rockwell Kent (1882-1971). Inscribed lower right in the plate: “KENT © 1937.”

Measuring at 10 3/8 by 7 3/4 inches, this lithograph is number 113 in Dan Burne Jones’s book, The Prints of Rockwell Kent: A Catalogue Raisonné.

Master printer George Miller (1894–1965) was able to bring forth Kent’s extraordinarily fine range of shading, from deep black to near white. Miller printed Kent’s lithographs during the period 1926 to 1950, after which his son Burr assisted and then continued the business.

In And Women Must Weep we are immediately struck by the sorrowful woman standing at her doorway. Less obvious, though essential to the understanding of the composition, are the additional figures on the other side of the picket fence, one carrying an American flag, marching off. Considering the context of the times – 1937 – Kent’s reference was probably to the ongoing civil war in Spain – the “Spanish Civil War,” between the Republicans and the Nationalists. (The late novelist Russell Banks’s book, “The Reserve,” is loosely based on Kent’s life, and the war, during this time period.)

As I discuss in my “The View from Asgaard”* exhibition catalogue essay, “A Greater Luminosity,”  (www.scottrferris.com), Kent’s depiction of a sorrowful or foreboding person appears in various forms in his book illustrations as well as other prints and paintings (see December 8, 1941, oil on canvas, Rockwell Kent Collection, Plattsburgh State Art Museum, below).

*The View from Asgaard: Rockwell Kent’s Adirondack Legacy (1999-2000), Adirondack Museum (now Adirondack Experience).

(Also, look for my postings on Instagram and LinkedIn – #scottrferris @scottrferris – for more information on Rockwell Kent.)