ORIGINAL DRAWING IN INK AND CONTE CRAYON, FOR 'EUROPE.'
Kent, Rockwell:
[Probably Ausable Forks, NY]. [ca. 1946]. 32 x 24.2 cm. Executed in black ink and conte crayon on paper. Estate stamp on verso. Matted and framed under glass (lower edge of frame chipped). An extraordinary original drawing by Kent, being the basis for one of his most important and evocative lithographs, EUROPE, which was published in an edition of one hundred copies in 1946 by George Miller. The image, a brooding depiction of a personification of Europe after the devastation of WWII, is based in part on the small drawing that appears on p.136 of the trade printing of Kent's illustrated edition of MOBY DICK, but was considerably revised and newly conceived to such an extent in this iteration that both the alteration in tone and the wholly different visual impact of the image relegate its predecessor to solely academic significance. The print was first reproduced in IT'S ME O LORD (1955), and then repeatedly in later studies of Kent's work. At the time of the compilation of Burne Jones's catalogue raisonne of Kent's prints, the existence/location of this drawing was unknown. It is unquestionably among the most significant of Kent's works. "...an enduring and haunting image...one of the most powerful and arresting artworks he did at any time in his long career" - Grolier Club Exhibit (1997). BURNE JONES 138. STANLEY (GROLIER) 98.
(Item ID: WRCLIT53763) $16,500.00
One of His Most Significant Works