Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Today -- Dec. 9, 2018 – is the kind of day Kent occasional experienced this time of year while on Fox Island. The temperature hovers between ten and twenty degrees. The sea may be relatively calm, but after his recent trip to Seward there’s little need to return. Steamers with mail won’t arrive again for a few more weeks. It’s the kind of day that often arrives after a time of hard and steady rain. It’s the kind of day that raises your hopes, feeds your spirit, and gives you the inspiration to endure life’s hardships. It’s sometimes foreshadowed – as it was last night – by a star-filled sky with a shining moon and occasionally a stunning Aurora or Northern Light’s show. For Kent, days like this also mean more light for his painting. On the gloomy, dark days he’s forced to sketch and work in black and white. Now he can capture the impressive yet subtle and rapidly changing colors of s...

RCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Dec. 3-4, 2018 Still in Seward PHOTO Top row from left: Kent as a child, photo inscribed to his daughter, Kathleen, in 1933; Auntie Josie Banker, Kent's mother's aunt. Kent's mother was raised beginning at age 11 by her Aunt Josie and husband, James Banker on their estate in Irvington, N.Y.  Banker was a wealth capitalist connected with the Vanderbilts; Kent's father, Rockwell Kent I, died when Rockwell II was five yeas old. He's shown here with his flute which Rockwell inherited, learned to play, and took with him on all his adventures. Bottom row from left: Kent's mother, Sara Ann (Holgate) Kent with 3-year-old Rockwell at left and his brother, Douglas at right; young Rockwell; Sara's sister, Kent's Aunt Jo, an artist herself who took Kent to Europe for four months when he was 13 years old. In addition to Kent's Austrian nanny, Rosa,  (not sho...