Maine Coast

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was an American painter known for his stark, monumental landscapes of the Maine coast, Alaska, and other remote places rendered in the simplified, dramatic manner that distinguishes his best work. Maine Coast from 1907 depicts the rocky Maine coastline in the stark, simplified manner that Kent was developing in the early 1900s, before the more monumental style of his mature work. The 1907 date places this in Kent's early period, when he was studying with William Merritt Chase and developing the simplified, dramatic style that would make him one of the most distinctive American landscape painters of the 20th century.

Maine Coast is important in Kent's early development because it shows the simplified, dramatic manner that he was developing from the Maine coast subjects that would be his most important throughout his career. Kent's stark Maine landscapes represent an alternative to both the Impressionist landscape tradition and the Regionalist painting of the 1930s—a type of landscape painting that is simultaneously dramatic and simplified, monumental and direct.

Maine Coast is Kent's early stark landscape: the rocky Maine coastline rendered in the simplified, dramatic manner he was developing in 1907 before the more monumental style of his mature work. The painting shows the Maine coast subjects that would define Kent's career—stark, simplified, and dramatic.