Greenland Summer (Primary Title)

Rockwell Kent, American, 1882 - 1971 (Artist)

1932
American
Oil on canvas mounted on plywood
United States
Unframed: 34 × 44 in. (86.36 × 111.76 cm)
Framed: 44 3/8 × 54 1/8 in. (112.71 × 137.48 cm)
90.189
Not on view

The artist, printmaker, and book illustrator Rockwell Kent is well known for his views of rugged landscapes in Alaska, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. Depicting the environs of Illorsuit, Greenland, a small island settlement north of the Arctic Circle, this painting portrays in the foreground the artist’s housekeeper and mistress, Salamina, along with one of her children in the middle ground. The artist employed a reductionist treatment to render the very dark, green-blue sky atop a yellow register, crowning the crisply modeled mountains and sea. The scene likely depicts a midnight sun, which is partially visible and appears on the horizon twenty-four hours a day.

lower right: "Rockwell Kent"
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
"'An Enkindled Eye,' The Paintings of Rockwell Kent" Santa Barbara Museum of Art (1985).

"Rockwell Kent: The Early Years," Bowdoin College Museum of Art (1969).
©artist or artist’s estate

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