Dirty Deborah

Silhouetted against a vast northern summer sky, a statuesque Greenlandic Inuit woman, dressed in shorts and boots, casts a watchful glance at a young child whose hand she clasps to steady his uneven steps as they walk together toward a rustic dwelling in the background. Rockwell Kent composed his image to monumentalize the mother, emphasizing her protective strength as she guides the toddler forward. Kent produced this print during his second sojourn in Greenland in 1931-32 and reproduced it in his book Salamina (1935). In the book Kent described a short visit to the isolated town of Nugatsiak where he met a couple named Eskias and Debora, writing “Theirs was the house I liked the best," but it is unknown if the print represents this woman.

Never formally trained in printmaking techniques, Kent learned lithography from skilled master printers, notably George C. Miller (1894-1965) of New York, with whom he worked to make this print. Over his career, Kent made more than eighty lithographs, including both book illustrations and stand-alone artworks.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004 (on exhibit partial run: April 1–May 3, 2004 and July 5–October 31, 2004). [exh. cat.]

Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.

Kent, Rockwell. Salamina. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935. [an impression of this print was reproduced in brick red in this book about Greenland]

Jones, Dan Burne. The Prints of Rockwell Kent: A Catalogue Raisonné. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1975. No. 96, p. 98.