The Rockwell Kent exhibition a must-see

“Rockwell Kent, The Mythic and the Modern,” is an exhibition of more than 150 words at the Portland Museum of Art, and will continue until Oct. 16. It is wonderful, taking over the first floor galleries as well as a gallery on the second floor. It commemorates the arrival of Kent on Monhegan Island 100 years ago. Kent was born in Tarrytown Heights, N.Y., in 1882 and died in 1971. He studied architecture at Columbia University but then turned to painting. In his varied career he worked as an architectural draftsman, as a lobsterman and carpenter on the coast of Maine and as a ship’s carpenter.

He went to Maine’s Monhegan Island in 1905, when he was 23, for five years. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1917 purchased “Winter – Monhegan Island,” making Kent the youngest artist whose work the museum had acquired.

The very large, beautifully-framed paintings of Monhegan, and other New England scenes, completely take up the first gallery. The museum was full of viewers when I was there, on Saturday. They were standing several feet away from the large paintings, viewing them in admiration, after they had read the titles on the wall beside each painting.

“Snow-Fields in the Berkshires,” 1919, is owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; “Late Afternoon, Monhegan,” 1906-07, shows a dark hillside, and the sun touching it; “A New England Landscape,” 1903, an oil on canvas, is owned by The Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H.; “Mount Monadnock,” 1903, is the mountain that was a favorite retreat of Henry David Thoreau.

Kent’s Alaskan paintings include “Alaska Winter,” 1919, a beautiful snow scene, quite stark, with a long, bare tree stump in the foreground. It is in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Alaska.

I especially enjoyed the Greenland paintings. One of the rocky shoreline pictures a man paddling a kayak on the calm water. It is owned by the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; in early November in Northern Greenland is the scene of enormous icebergs floating by people on a beach; “Arrival of the Post,” 1935, was outstanding, showing a postman on his sledge on a beach, delivering mail at twilight, the first delivery in six months. Figures of men and a few dogs are running toward the mailman, and huge icebergs are in the background. It is in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. This was one of the nearly 40 paintings of Greenland Kent gave the Soviet people in 1960.

I’d like to mention more of Rockwell Kent’s exciting works in this exhibition. I hope to view it again and take in the second floor art too. It is thrilling to have this extensive collection here in Portland. It involved much work by Jake Milgram Wien, a New Hampshire resident who has been researching and assembling this exhibition for several years, according to an article by Bob Keyes. The museum staff had a hand in arranging the exhibition, too. It is a most impressive show.

Islanders remember small-boat tragedy

Alden Bennett, a native of Portland, a graduate in the 1936 Class of Deering High School, now living in Pennsylvania, he and his wife still visit Maine on vacations. He subscribes to the American Journal, and I mention him occasionally in Ramblings. He has sent me an article relating to Long Island and Chebeague. It is a sad story, but I’m sure it will interest some of our readers.

He writes about Bennett family history on Chebeague Island, and has many pictures of Hamilton-Bennett homes there, dated, and bringing ancestors closer to his “kids, grandkids, etc.” He wrote, “I get out something like this to the younger members of the family (they’re now all younger) every six months or so, just to remind them whence we came.”

What a help that is. We older family members should take the time, as Alden has, to write down our recollections, and to label pictures we have collected, with names and dates.

This article, titled Stepping Stones,” was printed in “The Sloop’s Log,” published by the Chebeague Island Historical Society.

“Benjamin and Eliza Hamilton’s second son, Benjamin, met with a tragic death on January 25, 1861. He was about 22 and a stone slooper. He had just married Mary Horr, who was about 17. She was the daughter of Joseph and Charlotte Pettengill Horr. Mary lived on Long Island, although she spent her early years on Cliff Island near her mother’s family. After the ceremony took place on Long Island, the happy couple headed for Chebeague to set up housekeeping. They were traveling in a dory with Benjamin’s cousin, William Hamilton, who was about 20. He was the son of Simeon and Sarah Hamilton. A sudden snow squall came up and they were swept into the breakers near the Stepping Stones off the south side of Long Island. It is not known how long it took for the folks on Long, Chebeague and Cliff to realize they were missing, but it couldn’t have taken too long because their bodies were recovered. Benjamin and Mary are buried on Long Island, while William was laid to rest on Chebeague. The story is still told, on both Long Island and Chebeague, of how the frozen bodies of the newlyweds were found, hand in hand, stretched across the upturned dory.”

It surely was a very sad tragedy.

Recipe

This recipe dates back to 1983 when Florence Wing gave it to me to use in my column. Both she and Marion Whitcomb, both of whom worked with us, enjoyed it, and we did too. I suggested, when I wrote about it, that it would be a good casserole to take to a church or Grange super. That suggestion applies today, too.

Corn and sausage scallop

2 eggs

1 Tbls. flour

1 cup milk

Mix these smooth, then add 2 cups of corn chex cereal, crushed, (making 1-1/2 cups). Add 2 ozs. of mushrooms, and a 16 oz. can of cream style corn.

Cream another cup of corn chex and place on top of the first mixture, in a baking dish. Then place in a swirl around the edges of the dish Brown and Serve sausages. (I used a pkg. of Jimmy Dean’s small, cooked sausages).

Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

This is fun to assemble and more fun to eat!

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