Rockwell Kent, born in 1882, studied at the School of Architecture at Columbia, with William Chase at his Shinnecock School from 1897-1900 and later the New York School of Art with Robert Henri from 1903-4. Kent reflected his experiences from traveling through Greenland, Alaska and Ireland into his paintings. Kent remained politically active in the Socialist Party and was blacklisted in the McCarthy era. He won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967 yet refused membership to the National Academy when elected. Kent also published a journal he had written and illustrated on his trip to Alaska and an autobiography entitled "It's me, Oh Lord"(1955), Kent was best described as a Realist painter and printmaker whose bold use of heavy black masses and lines are remarkable. He had a particular interest in arctic and winter scenes with harsh contrast of tones.

Biography courtesy of The Caldwell Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/caldwell

According to scholar Constance Martin, "Kent's place belongs within America's stream of individualists, Thomas Eakins, Albert Ryder, and Winslow Homer." Kent was one of the most highly-recognized painters of his time and followed the example of his predecessors Frederic Church and William Bradford as an artist-explorer, traveling to the far northern reaches of arctic Newfoundland, Alaska, Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland. This summer, Kent's work was the subject of a major retrospective held at the Portland Museum of Art. His paintings are also included in more than fifty public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Biography courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, www.antiquesandfineart.com/questroyal