Rockwell Kent

We can all understand going to the Adirondacks for some quiet and peace from the city. We can also understand a couple spending a weekend in the Adirondacks to reconnect and spend time together. But can you imagine a married couple moving to the Adirondacks in order to hide away from the city's temptations and save their marriage? Well, that's what first brought Rockwell Kent, the famous painter, to the Adirondacks. The man was a narcissistic womanizer: not exactly marriage material. And living in New York City, there were always new girls that Kent would bring home... even in front of his wife. He had already been married once before and it was his second wife, Frances Lee who decided which farm in the Adirondacks to buy. It's sort of amazing to think that a failing marriage led to so many of Kent's beautiful painting depicting life on his arm and in the woods of the Adirondacks.

Though Frances chose the farm, it was Kent who named it "Asgaard", which means "farm of the gods". Though the farm has switched ownership, the farm remains with this name today. Kent enjoyed working to make the farm profitable and allowing the land to inspire his art. Though, the people of the Adirondacks weren't always so proud of him as they are today. Kent was a political man and in 1948, he organized a chapter of the leftist American Labor Party. With the start of the red scare and McCarthyism around the corner, this didn't sit well with the locals. Kent was forced to sell his business because people refused to buy dairy goods from him. Though this setback didn't stop Kent from keeping his rebellious and political spirit. He ran for Congress at one point and was not elected. His passport was revoked by the U.S. Government in 1950 to refuse him the right to leave the country. In 1939 and in 1953, Kent had to address the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, who were interested in his involvement in the Communist Party. 

Kent's biography is especially interesting because it isn't the life you would expect of a prominent Adirondack artist. It turns out the Adirondacks didn't save his second marriage and his nationalistic paintings of American land didn't stop him contributing to Communist literature and winning the Lenin peace prize. In many ways, he was a walking contradiction to the peaceful Adirondacks. And yet we can't deny the beauty of his Adirondack art that will always be praised by locals and tourists. Still today, the current owners of Asgaard Farm boast of their previous owner and the Adirondack Interpretive Center throws a Rockwell Kent Day to bring more publicity to his life and work.

Sources:
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2010/04/lets-eat-rockwell-kents-asgaard-dairy.html

http://www.sullivangoss.com/rockwell_Kent/

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2013/09/rockwell-kent-day-celebrates-artist-adirondack-roots.html