The Man Who Invented Monhegan
Rockwell Kent was the first of the great twentieth-century artists to capture the island in oils.
By John Hadley
Monhegan Island didn't exist before Rockwell Kent arrived to paint it. Yes, there was an island with a fishing village off the coast of Maine - latitude 43?- 46? North, longitude 69?-19? West, to be precise - and it was a place with a deep and rich history that predated the sea voyages of Samuel de Champlain. Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) wasn't even the first artist to set up an easel on the cliffs of White Head in 1905; his mentor Robert Henri, among others, beat him to the punch. So how can one say that Rockwell Kent invented Monhegan? Easily.
