Before the After - Rescued Rockwell Kent Photograph Archive Shows Painting Subjects

Before the After - Rescued Rockwell Kent Photograph Archive Shows Painting Subjects

Here's another important photograph archive that was rescued. This one is a collection of 31 albums of photos by artist Rockwell Kent. When his home burned down, many pieces of his art were lost, but he did save these albums. Fascinating to see the images before they were in his paintings.

The archive is being offered as one lot at Heritage Auctions as Lot #36125: Rockwell Kent. Rockwell Kent's Personal Photograph Archive of His Home at Asgaard, Excursions to Denmark, Greenland, Alaska, P... (Total: 1 Items) 

"Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was an adventurer, artist, illustrator, writer and political activist who, upon his death, the New York Times described as "a thoughtful, troublesome, profoundly independent, odd and kind man who made an imperishable contribution to the art of bookmaking in the United States."

Kent's life, travels, art and struggles have been well chronicled but this unique and intimate visual archive adds dimension to and "fleshes out the bones" of the story behind one of his most creative and important periods in the artist's career.

And, the fact that this extraordinary archive survives at all is nothing short of extraordinary. In 1969 Kent's house in the Adirondacks, Asgaard, was struck by lightning and the house along with irreplaceable works of his art, memorabilia of his travels, and library were destroyed including the negatives of these photographs.

Miraculously these photographs were saved by Kent himself, and they represent all of his photographic work.

It is nearly impossible to convey a sense of the scope of the archive but the images primarily deal with life at Asgaard, trips to Greenland, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and later years at Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. In short, these images show up time and again in Kent's work."

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Other important rescued photo archives:

• Vivian Maier (and here)
• Charles Cushman

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