Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent: Painting Blackhead
Hopper
In 2006 I first visited Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. The small island has earned a special place in American art history from the steady stream of artists who followed the advice of their charismatic teacher Robert Henri to go there and paint. Two of the best to take the advice were Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. Both spent important time early in the 20th century painting on the island. The commanding promontory Blackhead that stretches eastward out into the Atlantic inspired both of them make repeated paintings of it.
Hopper
The first four images are all small oil studies Hopper made of Blackhead. The final four paintings are by Hopper's art school classmate Rockwell Kent. Though the temperament of their paintings differ, what the two shared was an almost obsessive willingness to create painting after painting of a motif that obviously fascinated them. There's a sort of driving youthful energy to their engagement with Blackhead.
Hopper
By their actions they seem to be saying that if you look long enough and hard enough important discoveries others have overlooked will reveal themselves to you.
Hopper
When the art historian Eva J. Allen, PhD was organizing the eight venue traveling exhibition of my own paintings Unbroken Thread, she urged me to go to Monhegan and see the place that had inspired the artists from previous generations I so admired. So along with my wife Alice and my trusty French easel, I took the long ferry ride out to the island for a week of painting.
Kent
Kent
The first thing I did was to ask directions to Blackhead. It turns out to reach the overlook where Hopper and Kent painted one has to carry one's equipment over a long muddy and root-filled path through Monhegan's amazingly dense forest. At its end you climb over steep rocks before reaching the bluff from which they painted.
I made a note to myself that while I was 58, Hopper and Kent had dragged their heavy load of painting materials to the spot when they were young artists.
Kent
Kent
It turns out the view of Blackhead from this ledge is a tough view to paint. I was there midday and found the direction the sun was shining on the rocks generated few shadows and was poor for painting. Probably Hopper made the same discovery, as all four of his sunlight filled panels show he returned to paint there later in the afternoon.
Kent solved the problem another way, turning his focus more on the sea's white spray to add drama to his compositions. And his skies play a bigger role as well. All his paintings are enveloped in a foggy atmosphere.
