Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) Winter – Summer, Greenland, 1932-33 Oil on canvas tacked over panel 28 x 44 inches Signed and dated lower right: Rockwell Kent 1932-3 PROVENANCE: The artist; Mrs. Kendall Lee Glaenzer Milestone, the artist's sister-in-law; Mrs. Frances Lee Higgins Kent Gay, the artist's wife; Gift to the present owner from the above, circa 1980s. EXHIBITED: (probably) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, "Exhibition of Paintings by Rockwell Kent," December 14, 1933-January 21, 1934; Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Paintings by Rockwell Kent," March 1-30, 1934; Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario, April 1934; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, "Paintings, Prints and Drawings," May 26-June 18, 1934; Old White Art Gallery, The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, "Rockwellkentiana: Painter, Author, Illustrator," July 14-30, 1934. LITERATURE: R. Kent and C. Zigrosser, Rockwellkentiana: Few Words and Many Pictures, New York, 1933, n.p.; A. Lismer, The Art Gallery of Toronto, Granger Park Bulletin for Month of April 1934, Toronto, Ontario, April 1934, n.p.; E.W.H., "New Exhibition at National Gallery," Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ontario, May 31, 1934, n.p.; Illustrated in an unidentified newspaper, November 1934 (newspaper clipping reviewing a Macbeth Gallery exhibition), n.p.; Rockwell Kent: American Artists Group Monograph No. 2, New York, 1945, n.p. This painting is included in the Checklist of Paintings by Rockwell Kent by Scott R. Ferris. We wish to thank him for assistance in cataloguing this work and preparing the following essay: Frances Lee Higgins and Rockwell Kent were married on April 5, 1926, and divorced April 12, 1940. Frances and Kent honeymooned in Ireland, where the artist painted during an extended stay. Frances also traveled with her husband on one of his trips to Greenland, where this painting was created. In 1929, when Kent first traveled to Greenland, Frances met him (after he left the island nation), in Copenhagen, Denmark: bringing with her the material he needed to complete his illustrative work for Herman Melville's book, Moby Dick. Kent also began his research and drawing of the illustrations for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales while in Denmark. The Kents remained the guests of the noted explorer, Knud Rasmussen, until their return to the United States in late November-early December. While on his second trip to Greenland (1931-1932) Kent was joined by Frances – she arrived April 27, 1932; they returned home in early October. During Kent's third stay in Greenland (1934-1935) he spent much of his time writing about the second trip, in his book, Salamina, in which Frances is prominently featured. In a chapter entitled "High Latitudes," whose chapter head depicts the very mountain that is depicted in Winter – Summer, Greenland, Kent tells of an adventure in the Umanak Region in which their party faces the extremes of Greenland weather. He also pays homage to his lifelong muse, the mountain. "On the southwest of Kugdlerkorsuit Island, a short day's run south of Kraushavn, is a mountain peak that has achieved that basic structural form, the pyramid, which mountains, one believe, aspire to. Across a little bay from that fine peak lies a low point of land, and there we camped. ... An hour later, tent up, new wash strung on a line, all things in order at the camp, Frances sitting in the sun, I painting on the shore, one would have thought we'd been established there all summer" (as quoted in Salamina, 1935, New York, p. 306). Winter – Summer, Greenland, is a precursor, of sorts, to future paintings in two ways: the artist has achieved a conveyance of light that is nearly super-realistic, that surfaces in later works such as Maine Headland, Evening, circa 1950 (fig. 1), and in 1952 and 1958 Kent painted similarly formed mountains – Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies and the Matterhorn, in Switzerland (fig. 2). "Rockwell Kent has painted canvasses and water colours all having the same powerful rhythm and the rich, sombre mood of a man who takes the hills in a stride and grasps the forms of earth and sky in a powerful summary and who feels the colour and design fundamentally. He does not stop to gossip about the little things of foreground – he is too impatient for that – he strives after the big rhythms, creating order through the design of land, water and sky." - Arthur Lismer (of the Canadian "Group of Seven"), The Art Gallery of Toronto, Granger Park Bulletin for Month of April 1934, Toronto, Ontario, April 1934. "The oils include such items as Winter-Summer-Greenland and March Weather, Greenland, which take in great sweeps of gaunt rock and ice and snow and reveal very graphically how the artist uses color for emotional expressiveness." - E.W.H., "New Exhibition at National Gallery," Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ontario, May 31, 1934. "When he paints his Winter – Summer, Greenland, he lifts his rocky landscape up above still waters with exactly the grasp upon line and mass that seems essential to the motive. In this and numerous other pictures he gives the spectator just the chill of large, primeval things that the imagination associates with them." - Royal Cortissoz, "Review of the Macbeth Gallery exhibit," New York Herald Tribune, Sunday, November 11, 1934. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

(probably) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, "Exhibition of Paintings by Rockwell Kent," December 14, 1933-January 21, 1934; Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, "Paintings by Rockwell Kent," March 1-30, 1934; Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario, April 1934; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, "Paintings, Prints and Drawings," May 26-June 18, 1934; Old White Art Gallery, The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, "Rockwellkentiana: Painter, Author, Illustrator," July 14-30, 1934.

The artist; Mrs. Kendall Lee Glaenzer Milestone, the artist's sister-in-law; Mrs. Frances Lee Higgins Kent Gay, the artist's wife; Gift to the present owner from the above, circa 1980s.

Condition report available upon request.