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Night Watch

1929
(American, 1882–1971)
America, 20th century
wood engraving
Platemark: 20 x 13.8 cm (7 7/8 x 5 7/16 in.)
Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1930.568
© Courtesy of Plattsburgh State Art Museum/Estate of Sally Kent Gordon.
Catalogue raisonné: Jones 34; Zigrosser 33
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Description

Rockwell Kent’s experiences as a sailor during a 1929 voyage to Greenland inspired this image. It is part of a set of wood engravings commissioned by the American Car and Foundry Company for a campaign promoting its motor yacht division. Rather than depicting realistic representations of life on a boat, Kent’s images evoke a heroic masculine ideal of freedom and adventure at sea. Using an electrotype of the woodblock—a chemical method for creating exact metal copies of three-dimensional objects—Kent also included the designs as full-page illustrations for his travel memoir N by E (1930).
Night Watch

Night Watch

1929

Rockwell Kent

(American, 1882–1971)
America, 20th century

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