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123-585: Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker , illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager. Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York . Kent was of English descent . He lived much of his early life in and around New York City, where he attended the Horace Mann School . Kent studied with several influential painters and theorists of his day. He studied composition and design with Arthur Wesley Dow at

246-597: A Great Career." Recognized as a "first" for U.S. book publishing and marketing techniques, Whitman has been cited as "inventing" the use of the book blurb . Laura Dassow Walls , Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame , noted, "In one stroke, Whitman had given birth to the modern cover blurb, quite without Emerson's permission." Emerson later took offense that this letter was made public< and became more critical of his work. This edition included " Crossing Brooklyn Ferry "—a notable poem. The publishers of

369-519: A brush. Then a sheet of paper , perhaps slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is then rubbed with a baren or spoon , or is run through a printing press . If the print is in color, separate blocks can be used for each color , or a technique called reduction printing can be used. Reduction printing is a name used to describe the process of using one block to print several layers of color on one print. Both woodcuts and linocuts can employ reduction printing. This usually involves cutting

492-431: A child. Although he found much of the language "reckless and indecent", critic and editor George Ripley believed "isolated portions" of Leaves of Grass radiated "vigor and quaint beauty". Whitman firmly believed he would be accepted and embraced by the populace, especially the working class. Years later, he regretted not having toured the country to deliver his poetry directly by lecturing: If I had gone directly to

615-527: A design directly on a plank of wood , or transfers a drawing done on paper to a plank of wood. Traditionally, the artist then handed the work to a technician, who then uses sharp carving tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink. In the Western tradition, the surface of the block is then inked with the use of a brayer ; however in the Japanese tradition, woodblocks were inked with

738-515: A fabric stencil technique; ink is simply pushed through the stencil against the surface of the paper, most often with the aid of a squeegee. Generally, the technique uses a natural or synthetic 'mesh' fabric stretched tightly across a rectangular 'frame,' much like a stretched canvas. The fabric can be silk, nylon monofilament, multifilament polyester, or even stainless steel. While commercial screen printing often requires high-tech, mechanical apparatuses and calibrated materials, printmakers value it for

861-401: A focus on immortality, the major theme of this period. Whitman became more conservative in his old age, and had come to believe that the importance of law exceeded the importance of freedom. His materialistic view of the world became far more spiritual, believing that life had no meaning outside of the context of God's plan . When the book was first published, Whitman was fired from his job at

984-487: A gradient-like quality. Mokulito is a form of lithography on wood instead of limestone. It was invented by Seishi Ozaku in the 1970s in Japan and was originally called Mokurito. Josef Albers , Ralston Crawford , Gene Davis . Robert Indiana , Roy Lichtenstein , Julian Opie , Bridget Riley , Edward Ruscha , Andy Warhol . Screen printing (occasionally known as "silkscreen", or "serigraphy") creates prints by using

1107-406: A great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It had the best merits, namely, of fortifying & encouraging. I did not know until I, last night, saw the book advertised in a newspaper, that I could trust the name as real & available for

1230-463: A heart attack in 1971, the New York Times published an extensive front-page obituary that commenced: "At various (and frequently simultaneous) periods of his long life the protean Rockwell Kent was an architect, painter, illustrator, lithographer, xylographer, cartoonist, advertising artist, carpenter, dairy farmer, explorer, trade union leader and political controversialist. "He is so multiple

1353-491: A letter of heartfelt thanks, writing, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." He went on, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy." The letter was printed in the New York Tribune —without the writer's permission—and caused an uproar among prominent New England men of letters, including Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott , who were some of

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1476-412: A metal plate. Where the etching technique uses a needle to make lines that retain ink, traditional aquatint relies on powdered rosin which is acid resistant in the ground to create a tonal effect. The rosin is applied in a light dusting by a fan booth, the rosin is then cooked until set on the plate. At this time the rosin can be burnished or scratched out to affect its tonal qualities. The tonal variation

1599-426: A mezzotint, the surface of a copper printing plate is roughened evenly all over with the aid of a tool known as a rocker; the image is then formed by smoothing the surface with a tool known as a burnisher. When inked, the roughened areas of the plate will hold more ink and print more darkly, while smoother areas of the plate hold less or no ink, and will print more lightly or not at all. It is, however, possible to create

1722-593: A new publisher, Rees Welsh & Company, which released a new edition of the book in 1882. Whitman believed the controversy would increase sales, which proved true. Its banning in Boston , for example, became a major scandal and it generated much publicity for Whitman and his work. Though it was also banned by retailers like Wanamaker's in Philadelphia , this version went through five editions of 1,000 copies each. Its first printing, released on July 18, sold out in

1845-527: A number of sources for his Leaves of Grass . For his Drum-Taps , for instance, he lifted phrases from popular newspapers dealing with Civil War battles. He also condensed a chapter from a popular science book into his poem "The World Below the Brine". In a constantly changing culture, Whitman's literature has an element of timelessness that appeals to the American notion of democracy and equality, producing

1968-485: A painting, is known as a "reproductive print". Multiple impressions printed from the same matrix form an edition . Since the late 19th century, artists have generally signed individual impressions from an edition and often number the impressions to form a limited edition; the matrix is then destroyed so that no more prints can be produced. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artist's books . Printmaking techniques are generally divided into

2091-508: A person as to be multifarious," Louis Untermeyer, the poet, once observed." When an anthology of Kent's work was published in 1982, a reviewer of the book for the New York Times further described Kent as "... a thoughtful, troublesome, profoundly independent, odd and kind man who made an imperishable contribution to the art of bookmaking in the United States." Retrospectives of the artist's paintings and drawings have been mounted, by

2214-526: A polemical statement in the painting, apparently a message from the indigenous people of Alaska to the Puerto Ricans, in support of decolonization. As translated, the communication read "To the peoples of Puerto Rico, our friends: Go ahead, let us change chiefs. That alone can make us equal and free". The incident caused some consternation. Kent's patriotism never waned in spite of his often critical views of American foreign policy and his impatience with

2337-443: A post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, & have felt much like striking my tasks, & visiting New York to pay you my respects. R. W. Emerson Letter to Walter Whitman July 21, 1855 The first edition was very small and collected only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages. Whitman once said he intended the book to be small enough to be carried in a pocket. "That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in

2460-460: A section called "Chants Democratic"; later editions omitted some of the poems from this section, publishing others in Calamus and other sections. As 1891 came to a close, Whitman prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass , writing to a friend upon its completion, "L. of G. at last complete — after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of

2583-484: A sheet of paper or other material, by a variety of techniques. Common types of matrices include: metal plates for engraving , etching and related intaglio printing techniques; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography ; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings ; and linoleum for linocuts . Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screen printing process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Except in

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2706-430: A small amount of the block away, and then printing the block many times over on different sheets before washing the block, cutting more away and printing the next color on top. This allows the previous color to show through. This process can be repeated many times over. The advantages of this process is that only one block is needed, and that different components of an intricate design will line up perfectly. The disadvantage

2829-595: A source of inspiration for the next five years. His first series of paintings of Monhegan were shown to wide critical acclaim in 1907 at Clausen Galleries in New York. These works form the foundation of his lasting reputation as an early American modernist , and can be seen in museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art , Seattle Art Museum , New Britain Museum of American Art , and

2952-484: A table, paper is placed on the ink, and the back of the paper is drawn on, transferring the ink to the paper. Monoprints can also be made by altering the type, color, and viscosity of the ink used to create different prints. Traditional printmaking techniques, such as lithography, woodcut, and intaglio, can be used to make monoprints. Mixed-media prints may use multiple traditional printmaking processes such as etching, woodcut, letterpress, silkscreen, or even monoprinting in

3075-614: A thrashing review that advised its author to commit suicide. Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855 issue of The Criterion , calling it "a mass of stupid filth", and categorized its author as a filthy free lover . Griswold also suggested, in Latin, that Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians", one of the earliest public accusations of Whitman's homosexuality. Griswold's intensely negative review almost caused

3198-413: A time when such candid displays were considered immoral. The book was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics. Over time, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and became recognized as one of the central works of American poetry. Among the works in this collection are " Song of Myself ", " I Sing

3321-399: A traditional printing press. Images can be printed to a variety of substrates including paper, cloth, or plastic canvas. Dye-based inks are organic (not mineral ) dissolved and mixed into a liquid. Although most are synthetic, derived from petroleum , they can be made from vegetable or animal sources. Dyes are well suited for textiles where the liquid dye penetrates and chemically bonds to

3444-565: A type of relief print , is the earliest printmaking technique. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, and by the 5th century was used in China for printing text and images on paper. Woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Europe, and slightly later in Japan. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text. The artist either draws

3567-426: A unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. Other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulettes (a tool with a fine-toothed wheel) and burnishers (a tool used for making an object smooth or shiny by rubbing) are used for texturing effects. To make a print, the engraved plate is inked all over, then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving ink only in

3690-693: A well-received exhibition of his work in five Soviet museums – Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Hermitage Museum, Kiev Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art and State Museum of Fine Arts, Riga – in 1957–58, he donated several hundred of his paintings and drawings to the Soviet peoples in 1960 (as catalogued in "Rockwell Kent's Forgotten Landscapes": Scott R Ferris and Ellen Pearce. Down East Books. 1998). He subsequently became an honorary member of

3813-400: Is a form of printmaking that uses a matrix such as a woodblock, litho stone, or copper plate, but produces impressions that are unique. Multiple unique impressions printed from a single matrix are sometimes known as a variable edition. There are many techniques used in monoprinting, including collagraph , collage , hand-painted additions, and a form of tracing by which thick ink is laid down on

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3936-407: Is a technique invented in 1798 by Alois Senefelder and based on the chemical repulsion of oil and water . A porous surface, normally limestone , is used; the image is drawn on the limestone with a greasy medium. Acid is applied, transferring the grease-protected design to the limestone, leaving the image 'burned' into the surface. Gum arabic , a water-soluble substance, is then applied, sealing

4059-748: Is based on the French word gicleur, which means "nozzle". Today fine art prints produced on large format ink-jet machines using the CcMmYK color model are generally called "Giclée". Leaves of Grass Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman . Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing, rewriting, and expanding Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892. Six or nine individual editions of Leaves of Grass were produced, depending on how they are distinguished. This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades. The first edition

4182-501: Is called a "ghost print" or "cognate". Stencils, watercolor, solvents, brushes, and other tools are often used to embellish a monotype print. Monotypes are often spontaneously executed and with no preliminary sketch. Monotypes are the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques, a unique print that is essentially a printed painting. The principal characteristic of this medium is found in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting, and drawing media. Monoprinting

4305-408: Is controlled by the level of acid exposure over large areas, and thus the image is shaped by large sections at a time. Contemporary printmakers also sometimes using airbrushed asphaltum or spray paint , as well as other non toxic techniques, to achieve aquatint due to rosin boxes posing a fire hazard. Goya used aquatint for most of his prints. Mary Cassatt , Francis Seymour Haden , Master of

4428-674: Is fictionally recalled by Canadian writer Michael Winter in The Big Why , his 2004 Winterset Award-winning novel. Kent's work also figures in Steve Martin's 2010 novel An Object of Beauty and is the subject of a chapter in Douglas Brinkley 's 2011 history The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom: 1879–1960 . Columbia University is the repository of Rockwell Kent's personal collection of 3,300 working drawings and sketches, most of which were unpublished. The gift

4551-404: Is part of the intaglio family. In pure etching, a metal plate (usually copper, zinc, or steel) is covered with a waxy or acrylic ground . The artist then draws through the ground with a pointed etching needle, exposing the metal. The plate is then etched by dipping it in a bath of etchant (e.g. nitric acid or ferric chloride ). The etchant "bites" into the exposed metal, leaving behind lines in

4674-471: Is particularly notable for its inclusion of the poems " Song of Myself " and "The Sleepers". It was Emerson's positive response to the first edition that inspired Whitman to quickly produce a much-expanded second edition in 1856. This new edition contained 384 pages and had a cover price of one dollar. It also included a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf : "I Greet You at the Beginning of

4797-422: Is placed on the surface, and the image is transferred to the paper by the pressure of the printing press. Lithography is known for its ability to capture fine gradations in shading and very small detail. Photo-lithography captures an image by photographic processes on metal plates; printing is more or less carried out in the same way as stone lithography. Halftone lithography produces an image that illustrates

4920-422: Is quite 'odd', of course", referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand. Whitman claimed that the butterfly was real in order to foster his image as being "one with nature". In fact, the butterfly was made of cloth and was attached to his finger with wire. The major poems added to this edition were " A Word Out of

5043-447: Is regarded by many scholars as a completely do-it-yourself project. Whitman chose his idealized self as the subject of the book, created the style in which it was written and worked hard and intelligently to perfect the style over a period of six or seven years, creating the personality of the proletarian bard , the supposed writer of the poems. Leaves of Grass is also notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during

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5166-645: Is that once the artist moves on to the next layer, no more prints can be made. Another variation of woodcut printmaking is the cukil technique, made famous by the Taring Padi underground community in Java, Indonesia. Taring Padi Posters usually resemble intricately printed cartoon posters embedded with political messages. Images—usually resembling a visually complex scenario—are carved unto a wooden surface called cukilan, then smothered with printer's ink before pressing it unto media such as paper or canvas. The process

5289-425: Is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by pressing the two together, usually using a printing-press. Monotypes can also be created by inking an entire surface and then, using brushes or rags, removing ink to create a subtractive image, e.g. creating lights from a field of opaque color. The inks used may be oil based or water based. With oil based inks, the paper may be dry, in which case the image has more contrast, or

5412-601: Is used. In the 20th century, true engraving was revived as a serious art form by artists including Stanley William Hayter whose Atelier 17 in Paris and New York City became the magnet for such artists as Pablo Picasso , Alberto Giacometti , Mauricio Lasansky and Joan Miró . Albrecht Dürer , Rembrandt , Francisco Goya , Wenceslaus Hollar , Whistler , Otto Dix , James Ensor , Edward Hopper , Käthe Kollwitz , Pablo Picasso , Cy Twombly , Lucas van Leyden Etching

5535-727: The Department of the Interior after Secretary of the Interior James Harlan read it and said he found it offensive. An early review of the first publication focused on the persona of the anonymous poet, calling him a loafer "with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence on his face". Another reviewer viewed the work as an odd attempt at reviving old Transcendental thoughts, "the speculations of that school of thought which culminated at Boston fifteen or eighteen years ago". Emerson approved of

5658-588: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco . Among those critics lauding Kent was James Huneker of the Sun , who praised Kent's athletic brushwork and daring color dissonances. (It was Huneker who deemed the paintings of The Eight as "decidedly reactionary".) In 1910, Kent helped organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists, and in 1911, together with Arthur B. Davies he organized An Independent Exhibition of

5781-448: The "Do It Yourself" approach, and the low technical requirements, high quality results. The essential tools required are a squeegee, a mesh fabric, a frame, and a stencil. Unlike many other printmaking processes, a printing press is not required, as screen printing is essentially stencil printing. Screen printing may be adapted to printing on a variety of materials, from paper, cloth, and canvas to rubber, glass, and metal. Artists have used

5904-471: The 100th anniversary of Kent's Alaskan painting expedition, his stay on Fox Island, and the publication of Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska . The letters he wrote and received during that time reveal a less than quiet experience beneath his book's narrative. Personal correspondence with his wife, Kathleen, and with Hildegarde Hirsch, his inamorata of that time, provide a fascinating glimpse into

6027-417: The 1860 edition, Thayer & Eldridge , declared bankruptcy shortly after its publication, and were almost unable to pay Whitman. "In regard to money matters", they wrote, "we are very short ourselves and it is quite impossible to send the sum". Whitman received only $ 250, and the original plates made their way to Boston publisher Horace Wentworth. When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It

6150-576: The 1900s and 1910s as an architectural renderer and carpenter. At Columbia, Kent befriended future curator Carl Zigrosser , who became his close friend, supporter, and collaborator. Kent's early paintings of Mount Monadnock and New Hampshire were first shown at the Society of American Artists in New York in 1904, when Dublin Pond was purchased by Smith College . In 1905 Kent ventured to Monhegan Island , Maine, and found its rugged and primordial beauty

6273-597: The Arctic Circle in a tiny fishing settlement called Igdlorssuit (or Illorsuit), where he conceived some of the largest and most celebrated paintings of his career. His cross-cultural encounters in Greenland included Leni Riefenstahl, the famed German filmmaker/actor, who was briefly in Illorsuit with the film crew of S.O.S. Iceberg . Kent's own movie-making aspirations, including a quasi-documentary film featuring

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6396-711: The Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John's, Newfoundland , where the exhibition Pointed North: Rockwell Kent in Newfoundland and Labrador was curated by Caroline Stone in the summer of 2014. Other exhibitions include an exhibition in 2013 in Winona, Minnesota marking the centennial of Kent's time there; the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery and Owen D. Young Library at St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York) in

6519-823: The Art Students League in the fall of 1900, and he studied painting with William Merritt Chase each of the three summers between 1900 and 1902 at the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art , after which he entered in the fall of 1902 Robert Henri 's class at the New York School of Art , which Chase had founded. During the summer of 1903, in Dublin, New Hampshire , Kent was apprenticed to painter and naturalist Abbott Handerson Thayer . An undergraduate background in architecture at Columbia University prepared Kent for occasional work in

6642-642: The Body Electric ", "Spontaneous Me", "Native Moments", "The Dalliance of the Eagles", "By Blue Ontario's Shore", "Unfolded Out of the Folds", "The Sleepers", and "Faces". Whitman rejected the censorship, writing to Osgood, "The list whole & several is rejected by me, & will not be thought of under any circumstances." Osgood refused to republish the book and returned the plates to Whitman when his suggested changes and deletions were ignored. The poet found

6765-546: The Body Electric ", and " Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking ". Later editions would include Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln , " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ". The first edition of Leaves of Grass was published on July 4, 1855. The poem has its beginnings in an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson called " The Poet " (1844), which expressed the need for

6888-537: The Cape Playhouse and Cinema in Dennis, Massachusetts , contracted with Rockwell Kent for the design of murals for the cinema—including an extraordinarily expansive mural for the ceiling. The work of transferring and painting the designs on the 6,400-square-foot (590 m) span was done by Kent's collaborator Jo Mielziner (1901–1976) and a crew of stage set painters from New York City. Ostensibly staying away from

7011-461: The Housebook , Richard Spare , William Lionel Wyllie A variant of engraving, done with a sharp point, rather than a v-shaped burin . While engraved lines are very smooth and hard-edged, drypoint scratching leaves a rough burr at the edges of each line. This burr gives drypoint prints a characteristically soft, and sometimes blurry, line quality. Because the pressure of printing quickly destroys

7134-584: The Inuit, are explored in Rockwell Kent and Hollywood (Jake Milgram Wien, 2002), cited below. Many of Kent's historic photographs and hand-tinted lantern slides are reproduced for the first time in North by Nuuk: Greenland after Rockwell Kent (Denis Defibaugh, 2019), also cited below. As World War II approached, Kent shifted his artistic agenda, becoming increasingly active in progressive politics. In 1937,

7257-574: The Paintings and Drawings of Twelve Men, referred to as "The Twelve" and "Kent's Tent". Painters Marsden Hartley , John Marin , and Max Weber (but not John Sloan, Robert Henri, or George Bellows) participated in the 1911 exhibition. Kent was away in Winona, Minnesota, on an architectural assignment when the historic Armory Show took place in Manhattan in 1913. A transcendentalist and mystic in

7380-592: The Sea " and "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life". The 1867 edition was intended to be, according to Whitman, "a new & much better edition of Leaves of Grass complete — that unkillable work!" He assumed it would be the final edition. The edition, which included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel , and the new Songs before Parting , was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed. When it

7503-773: The Section of Painting and Sculpture of the U.S. Treasury commissioned Kent, along with nine other artists, to paint two murals in the New Post Office building at the Federal Triangle in Washington, DC; the two murals are named "Mail Service in the Arctic" and "Mail Service in the Tropics" to celebrate the reach of domestic airborne postal service. Kent included (in an Alaska Native language and in tiny letters)

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7626-642: The Soviet Academy of Fine Arts and in 1967 the recipient of the International Lenin Peace Prize . Kent specified that his prize money be given to the women and children of Vietnam , both North and South . (The nature of Kent's gift is clarified by his wife Sally in the 2005 documentary Rockwell Kent , produced and written by Fred Lewis.) Rockwell Kent traveled to the Soviet Union and found like-minded people there. In

7749-571: The Symbolist spirit evoking the mysteries and cosmic wonders of the natural world. "I don't want petty self-expression", Kent wrote, "I want the elemental, infinite thing; I want to paint the rhythm of eternity." In the late summer of 1918, Kent and his nine-year-old son ventured to the American frontier of Alaska . Wilderness (1920), the first of Kent's several adventure memoirs, is an edited and illustrated compilation of his letters home. The New Statesman (London) described Wilderness as "easily

7872-496: The United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's virtues and vices. This concept, along with the call to abandon strict rhyme and meter , were explored more fully in earlier works by John Neal : novels Randolph (1823) and Rachel Dyer (1828). Whitman, likely having read all three, consciously set out to answer their call. He thus began working on the first edition of Leaves of Grass . Whitman later commented on Emerson's influence, stating, "I

7995-735: The autumn of 2012; the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Maine) during the spring through autumn of 2012; the Bennington Museum in Vermont during the summer of 2012; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the spring through summer of 2012; and the Portland Museum of Art, Maine for the major summer show of 2005 commemorating the centenary of Kent's arrival on Monhegan Island. 2018 through 2020 marked

8118-446: The backstory of his life. A more detailed account can be found at the blog Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal . One of Kent's exemplary pen-and-ink drawings from Moby Dick appears on a U.S. postage stamp issued as part of the 2001 commemorative panel celebrating American Illustration, with other artistic examples by Maxfield Parrish , Frederic Remington , and Norman Rockwell . The year he spent in Newfoundland in 1914-1915

8241-578: The ban a violation of his civil rights. Meanwhile, Kent also came under attack as an officer of the International Workers Order , a mutual benefit and cultural society supported by leftists and immigrants. In 1951, Kent defended his record in court proceedings and exposed the perjured testimony that claimed he was a Communist. From 1957 to 1971, Kent was president of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. After

8364-535: The best option for extending the legacy of the New Deal. In the changing postwar context, Kent advocated nuclear disarmament and continued friendship with America's wartime ally, the Soviet Union. This placed him on the wrong side of American Cold War policies. The Soviet Union extensively promoted Kent's work, who was among hundreds of other prominent intellectuals and creative artists targeted by those in league with Joseph McCarthy , but he and William Gropper share

8487-492: The burr, drypoint is useful only for very small editions; as few as ten or twenty impressions. To counter this, and allow for longer print runs, electro-plating (here called steelfacing) has been used since the nineteenth century to harden the surface of a plate. The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master , a south German fifteenth-century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only. Among

8610-573: The case of monotyping , all printmaking processes have the capacity to produce identical multiples of the same artwork, which is called a print. Each print produced is considered an "original" work of art, and is correctly referred to as an "impression", not a "copy" (that means a different print copying the first, common in early printmaking). However, impressions can vary considerably, whether intentionally or not. Master printmakers are technicians who are capable of printing identical "impressions" by hand. A print that copies another work of art, especially

8733-412: The character with "a rakish kind of slant, like the mast of a schooner". The first edition contained no table of contents, and none of the poems had a title. Early advertisements appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities" as an oddity . Sales of the book were few, but Whitman was not discouraged. One paper-bound copy was sent to Emerson, who had initially inspired its creation. Emerson responded with

8856-442: The count depending on how they are distinguished: scholars who hold that an edition is an entirely new set of type will count the 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881 printings; whereas others will include the 1876, 1888–1889, and 1891–1892 (the "deathbed edition") releases. The editions were of varying length, each one larger and augmented from the previous version—the final edition reached over 400 poems. The first 1855 edition

8979-421: The creation of the print. They may also incorporate elements of chine colle, collage, or painted areas, and may be unique, i.e. one-off, non-editioned, prints. Mixed-media prints are often experimental prints and may be printed on unusual, non-traditional surfaces. Istvan Horkay , Ralph Goings , Enrique Chagoya Digital prints refers to images printed using digital printers such as inkjet printers instead of

9102-515: The crevices hold ink. A non-toxic form of etching that does not involve an acid is Electroetching . John Martin , Ludwig von Siegen , John Smith , Wallerant Vaillant , Carol Wax An intaglio variant of engraving in which the image is formed from subtle gradations of light and shade. Mezzotint—from the Italian mezzo ("half") and tinta ("tone")—is a "dark manner" form of printmaking, which requires artists to work from dark to light. To create

9225-701: The distinction of being the only graphic artists to be targeted. Kent was not a Communist and considered his political views to be in the best traditions of American democracy. However, his participation in the Stockholm Appeal and the World Peace Council led to the suspension of his passport in 1950. After he filed suit to regain his foreign-travel rights, in June 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court in Kent v. Dulles affirmed his right to travel by declaring

9348-441: The early respective versions of 1855 and 1856, to the 1860 edition, and finally to editions late into Whitman's life. These latter editions would include the poem " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ", Whitman's elegy to Abraham Lincoln after his death. While Whitman has famously proclaimed (in " Song of Myself ") his poetry to be "Nature without check with original energy", scholars have discovered that Whitman borrowed from

9471-579: The emphasis on American culture in particular helped reach Whitman's intention of creating a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer . As a believer in phrenology , Whitman, in the 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass , includes the phrenologist among those he describes as "the lawgivers of poets". Borrowing from the discipline, Whitman uses the phrenological concept of adhesiveness in reference to one's propensity for friendship and camaraderie. Whitman edited, revised, and republished Leaves of Grass many times before his death, and over

9594-424: The engraved lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times; typically several hundred impressions (copies) could be printed before the printing plate shows much sign of wear, except when drypoint , which gives much shallower lines,

9717-427: The expression of love in its sensuous form." The second period, from 1859 to 1865, paints the picture of a more melancholic, sober poet. In poems like " Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking " and " When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd ", the prevailing themes are of love and of death. From 1866 to his death, the ideas Whitman presented in his second period had experienced an evolution: his focus on death had grown to

9840-404: The few Transcendentalists who agreed with Emerson's letter and his statements regarding Leaves of Grass . Dear Sir, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass . I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit & wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed

9963-399: The fiber. Because of the deep penetration, more layers of material must lose their color before the fading is apparent. Dyes, however, are not suitable for the relatively thin layers of ink laid out on the surface of a print. Pigment is a finely ground, particulate substance which, when mixed or ground into a liquid to make ink or paint, does not dissolve, but remains dispersed or suspended in

10086-487: The first edition was that the book included neither the author nor the publisher's name (both the author and publisher being Whitman). Instead, the cover included an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman himself—in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side. This figure was meant to represent the devil-may-care American working man of the time, one who might be taken as an almost idealized figure in any crowd. The engraver, later commenting on his depiction, described

10209-712: The following basic categories: A type of printmaking outside of this group is viscosity printing . Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing , photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family. For example, Rembrandt's prints are usually referred to as "etchings" for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all. Albrecht Dürer , Hans Burgkmair , Ugo da Carpi , Hiroshige , Hokusai , Frans Masereel , Gustave Baumann , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Eric Slater Antonio Frasconi Woodcut,

10332-801: The fore in the latter part of the 1930s, when he took part in several initiatives of the cultural popular front, including support for the Spanish Republic and the subsequent war against fascism. Most notably, he participated in the American Artists' Congress at the time of its formation in 1936 and later served as an officer of the Artists' Union of America and then the Artists' League of America in their efforts to represent artists to boards, museums and dealers. In 1948 he stood for Congress as an American Labor Party candidate supporting Henry Wallace 's Progressive Party presidential campaign as

10455-427: The image by only roughening the plate selectively, so working from light to dark. Mezzotint is known for the luxurious quality of its tones: first, because an evenly, finely roughened surface holds a lot of ink, allowing deep solid colors to be printed; secondly because the process of smoothing the texture with burin, burnisher and scraper allows fine gradations in tone to be developed. The mezzotint printmaking method

10578-687: The important role immigrants play in constructing American national identity. In 1948, Kent was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and in 1966 he became a full Academician. Kent passed away at his home in the Adirondacks in 1971. Although he came from a relatively privileged background, Kent formed radical political views early in life, joining the Socialist Party of America in 1904. He cast his first presidential vote for Eugene Debs that year, and for

10701-475: The ink drawings and reverse paintings on glass. Kent frequently crossed into the realm of illustration in the 1920s and contributed drawings for reproduction on the covers of many leading magazines. For example, Kent's pen, brush, and ink drawings were reproduced on the covers of the pulp magazine Adventure in 1927, leading Time magazine to say that "if it were distinguished for nothing else, Adventure would stand apart from rival 'pulps'   ... because it

10824-492: The land, and peace & war, young & old." This last version of Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the 'deathbed edition'. In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald : Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass , which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for

10947-439: The liquid. Pigments are categorized as either inorganic (mineral) or organic (synthetic). Pigment-based inks have a much longer permanence than dye-based inks. Giclée (pron.: /ʒiːˈkleɪ/ zhee-KLAY or /dʒiːˈkleɪ/), is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for digital prints made on inkjet printers. Originally associated with early dye-based printers it is now more often refers to pigment-based prints. The word

11070-514: The most famous artists of the old master print, Albrecht Dürer produced three drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving. Honoré Daumier , Vincent van Gogh , George Bellows , Pierre Bonnard , Edvard Munch , Emil Nolde , Pablo Picasso , Odilon Redon , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Salvador Dalí , M. C. Escher , Willem de Kooning , Joan Miró , Stow Wengenroth , Elaine de Kooning , Louise Nevelson Lithography

11193-419: The most popular printmaking medium. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving which requires special skill in metalworking, etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing. Etching prints are generally linear and often contain fine detail and contours. Lines can vary from smooth to sketchy. An etching is opposite of a woodcut in that the raised portions of an etching remain blank while

11316-679: The most remarkable book to come out of America since Leaves of Grass was published." Upon the artist's return to New York in March 1919, publishing scion George Palmer Putnam and others, including Juliana Force—assistant to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney—incorporated the artist as "Rockwell Kent, Inc." to support him in his new Vermont homestead while he completed his paintings from Alaska for exhibition in 1920 at Knoedler Galleries in New York. Kent's small oil-on-wood-panel sketches from Alaska—uniformly horizontal studies of light and color—were exhibited at Knoedler's as "Impressions." Their artistic lineage to

11439-451: The open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air", he explained. About 800 copies were printed, though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover. The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia . The poems of the first edition, which were given titles in later issues, included: There have been held to be either six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass,

11562-476: The opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof. Stevens demanded the removal of the poems "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute", as well as changes to " Song of Myself ", "From Pent-Up Aching Rivers", " I Sing

11685-592: The original Life . He also brought his Hogarth Jr., style to a series of richly colored reverse paintings on glass that he completed in 1918 and exhibited at Wanamaker's Department Store . (Two of these glass paintings are in the collection of the Columbus Museum of Art , part of the bequest of modernist collector Ferdinand Howald .) In Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern , Jake Milgram Wien devotes an entire chapter to Hogarth Jr. and reproduces several of

11808-400: The paper may be damp, in which case the image has a 10 percent greater range of tones. Unlike monoprinting , monotyping produces a unique print, or monotype, because most of the ink is removed during the initial pressing. Although subsequent reprintings are sometimes possible, they differ greatly from the first print and are generally considered inferior. A second print from the original plate

11931-419: The past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance. By the time this last edition was completed, Leaves of Grass had grown from a small book of 12 poems to a hefty tome of almost 400 poems. As the volume changed, so did

12054-560: The people, read my poems, faced the crowds, got into immediate touch with Tom, Dick, and Harry instead of waiting to be interpreted, I'd have had my audience at once. On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood , that Leaves of Grass constituted "obscene literature". Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice , his letter said: We are of

12177-534: The pictures that Whitman used to illustrate them—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and jacket. In 1995, Dail Glaswellt , the Welsh language translation was published. Whitman's collection of poems in Leaves of Grass is usually interpreted according to the individual poems contained within its individual editions. Discussion is often focused upon the major editions typically associated with

12300-433: The plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate, and the printing process is then just the same as for engraving . Although the first dated etching is by Albrecht Dürer in 1515, the process is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer ( c.  1470–1536 ) of Augsburg, Germany, who decorated armor in this way, and applied the method to printmaking. Etching soon came to challenge engraving as

12423-560: The preface to the second Russian edition of his book "Salamina", Kent wrote: "Recently… I've met two talented young artists from Kyiv Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko . They lived and worked in the Soviet Arctic, just like me, they love the North and its inhabitants… Shouldn't art reveal the essence of Humanity? .. We who strive to create a better world for people must know the clay from which we form man." When Kent died of

12546-480: The promises of capitalism. He remained America's premier draftsman of the sea, and during World War II he produced a series of pen/brush and ink maritime drawings for American Export Lines and began another series of pen/brush and ink drawings for Rahr Malting Company which he completed in 1946. The drawings were reproduced in To Thee! , a book Kent also wrote and designed celebrating American freedom and democracy and

12669-526: The publication of the second edition to be suspended. Whitman incorporated the full review, including the innuendo, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass . Not all responses were negative, however. Critic William Michael Rossetti considered Leaves of Grass a classic along the lines of the works of William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri . A woman from Connecticut named Susan Garnet Smith wrote to Whitman to profess her love for him after reading Leaves of Grass and even offered him her womb should he want

12792-692: The rest of his life was ready to debate socialist ideas on any occasion. His respect for the dignity of labor, acquired through personal experience and the skills of his craft, also made him a strong supporter of unions. He briefly joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912 and belonged at various times to unions in the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations . Kent's political activism came to

12915-562: The same experience and feelings within people living centuries apart. Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass also responds to the impact such has on the masses. The title metaphor of grass, however, indicates a pastoral vision of rural idealism. Particularly in "Song of Myself", Whitman emphasizes an all-powerful "I" who serves as narrator. The "I" attempts to relieve both social and private problems by using powerful affirmative cultural images;

13038-527: The small and spare oil sketches of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), which are often entitled "Arrangements," underscores Kent's admiration of Whistler's genius. Approached in 1926 by publisher R. R. Donnelley to produce an illustrated edition of Richard Henry Dana Jr. 's Two Years Before the Mast , Kent suggested Moby-Dick instead. Published in 1930 by the Lakeside Press of Chicago ,

13161-454: The state of Massachusetts to protest the Sacco and Vanzetti executions of 1927, Kent did in fact venture to Dennis in June 1930 to spend three days on the scaffolding, making suggestions and corrections. The signatures of both Kent and Mielziner appear on opposite walls of the cinema. In 1927, Kent moved to upstate New York where he had acquired an Adirondack farmstead. Asgaard, as he named it,

13284-414: The sterile & stingy Nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our western wits fat & mean. I give you joy of your free & brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, & which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of

13407-404: The surface of the stone not covered with the drawing medium. The stone is wetted, with water staying only on the surface not covered in grease-based residue of the drawing; the stone is then 'rolled up', meaning oil ink is applied with a roller covering the entire surface; since water repels the oil in the ink, the ink adheres only to the greasy parts, perfectly inking the image. A sheet of dry paper

13530-421: The technique to print on bottles, on slabs of granite, directly onto walls, and to reproduce images on textiles which would distort under pressure from printing presses. Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image

13653-433: The three-volume limited edition (1,000 copies) filled with Kent's haunting black-and-white pen/brush and ink drawings sold out immediately; Random House also produced a trade edition. Less well known are Kent's talents as a jazz age humorist. As the pen-and-ink draftsman "Hogarth Jr.," Kent created dozens of whimsical and smartly irreverent drawings published by Vanity Fair , New York Tribune , Harper's Weekly , and

13776-449: The tradition of Thoreau and Emerson , whose works he read, Kent found inspiration in the austerity and stark beauty of wilderness. After Monhegan, he lived for extended periods of time in Winona, Minnesota (1912–1913), Newfoundland (1914–15), Alaska (1918–19), Vermont (1919–1925), Tierra del Fuego (1922–23), Ireland (1926), and Greenland (1929; 1931–32; 1934–35). His series of land and seascapes from these often forbidding locales convey

13899-421: The work in part because he considered it a means of reviving Transcendentalism, though even he urged Whitman to tone down the sexual imagery in 1860. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was said to have thrown his 1855 edition into the fire. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, "It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass , only that he did not burn it afterwards." The Saturday Press printed

14022-425: The years his focus and ideas were not static. One critic has identified three major "thematic drifts" in Leaves of Grass : the period from 1855 to 1859, from 1859 to 1865, and from 1866 to his death. In the first period, 1855 to 1859, his major work is "Song of Myself", which exemplifies his prevailing love for freedom. "Freedom in nature, nature which is perfect in time and place and freedom in expression, leading to

14145-471: Was a small book of twelve poems, and the last was a compilation of over 400. The collection of loosely connected poems represents the celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity and praises nature and the individual human's role in it. Rather than focusing on religious or spiritual matters, Leaves of Grass focuses primarily on the body and the material world. Its poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length . Leaves of Grass

14268-457: Was developed in Germany in the 1430s from the engraving used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface of a metal plate, traditionally made of copper. Engraving using a burin is generally a difficult skill to learn. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types. The burin produces

14391-544: Was finally printed, it was a simple edition and the first to omit a picture of the poet. In 1879, Richard Worthington purchased the electrotype plates and began printing and marketing unauthorized copies. The 1889 (eighth) edition was little changed from the 1881 version, but it was more embellished and featured several portraits of Whitman. The biggest change was the addition of an "Annex" of miscellaneous additional poems. By its later editions, Leaves of Grass had grown to 14 sections. Earlier editions contained

14514-502: Was his residence for the remainder of his life, and from his studio there he worked tirelessly on countless painting and drawing assignments. In the summer of 1929, Kent sailed on a painting expedition to Greenland, and his adventures (and misadventures) are recounted in the best-selling N by E (1930). After meeting Danish Arctic explorers Peter Freuchen and Knud Rasmussen on this trip, Kent determined to return to Greenland to paint and write. He spent two years (1931–32 and 1934–35) above

14637-516: Was invented by Ludwig von Siegen (1609–1680). The process was used widely in England from the mid-eighteenth century, to reproduce oil paintings and in particular portraits. Norman Ackroyd , Jean-Baptiste Le Prince , William Daniell , Francisco Goya , Thomas Rowlandson A technique used in Intaglio etchings. Like etching, aquatint technique involves the application of acid to make marks in

14760-399: Was made in 1972 by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Berol, Corliss Lamont, Mrs. Arthur Hayes Sulzberger, and Dan Burne Jones. The Archives of American Art is the repository for Kent's voluminous correspondence. Kent was a prolific writer whose adventure memoirs and autobiographies include: BELOW: PUBLISHED WORKS ONLY Printmaker Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix to

14883-443: Was once entirely illustrated by Rockwell Kent   ..." Decorative work ensued intermittently: in 1939, Vernon Kilns reproduced three series of designs drawn by Kent (Moby Dick, Salamina, Our America) on its sets of contemporary china dinnerware. At the Art Students League in the 1920s or 1930s, Kent met and befriended many artists, including Wilhelmina Weber Furlong and Thomas Furlong . Raymond Moore, founder and impresario of

15006-455: Was published in Brooklyn at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s. The shop was located at Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Cranberry Street, now the site of apartment buildings that bear Whitman's name. Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself. A calculated feature of

15129-511: Was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil." On May 15, 1855, Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court , Southern District of New Jersey, and received its copyright. The title is a pun , as grass was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and leaves is another name for the pages on which they were printed. The first edition

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