Of Men and Mountains.

KENT, Rockwell .

Item Number: 136422

New York: Asgaard Press Ausable Forks, 1959.

Signed limited edition of the illustrated account of the author’s “European travels with his wife, Sally, following their release from continental imprisonment.” Octavo, original cloth-backed marbled boards, illustrated by the author. One of two hundred and fifty copies illustrated and signed by the author, this is number 102 with a presentation inscription by Kent, “To Juliet and Frank: Merry Christmas! – (1958!) Rockwell Kent 1959.” Near fine in the rare publisher’s glassine which is in very good condition.

A transcendentalist and mystic in the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, whose works he read, American artist, writer, and adventurer and voyager Rockwell Kent found inspiration in the austerity and stark beauty of wilderness. Kent's early paintings of Mount Monadnock and New Hampshire were first shown at the Society of American Artists in New York in 1904, when Dublin Pond was purchased by Smith College. In 1905 Kent ventured to Monhegan Island, Maine, and found its rugged and primordial beauty a source of inspiration for the next five years. His first series of paintings of Monhegan were shown to wide critical acclaim in 1907 at Clausen Galleries in New York. These works form the foundation of his lasting reputation as an early American modernist, and can be seen in museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.