The Lovers

Against a uniform expanse of black, seen either as flat tone or a limitless sky, a seated man protectively embraces his sleeping companion in Rockwell Kent's The Lovers. The dramatic composition emphasizes the nude figures' solid monumentality while creating a graceful design from their interwoven upper bodies and extended legs. Exploiting the stark contrasts characteristic of the woodcut medium, Kent selected details to remain in relief, carving out surrounding areas of the wood block so that certain forms would print as spotlit highlights on each body; he also carefully defined the textures of the patterned bed and three fronds of the fern at right.

By the time Kent made this print, he had already received considerable acclaim for the striking illustrations in his books about his wilderness adventures to Alaska, South America's Tierra del Fuego, and Greenland. These works helped establish him as a leading graphic artist in the 1920s and 1930s. The Lovers is one of many woodcuts in which Kent depicted one or two figures isolated in the world.

Kent, Rockwell and Carl Zigrosser. Rockwellkentiana: Few Words and Many Pictures. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1933. No. 23 (Z. 23), p. 97.

Jones, Dan Burne. The Prints of Rockwell Kent. A Catalogue Raisonné. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. No. 23, p. 25.

Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus. American Graphics 1860–1940, Selected from the Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. No. 83, pp. 86–87.

Sharp, Ellen et al. Master Prints of Five Centuries, The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection. (exh. cat., The Detroit Institute of Arts). Detroit, Michigan: The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1990. No. 49, p. 76.