Rockwell Kent / Moby Dick

 

Rockwell Kent

MOBY DICK

Rockwell Kent

When Herman Met Rockwell: The Definitive Moby Dick

 

When Herman Met Rockwell: The Definitive Moby Dick

August 07, 2015

Originally posted August 6, 2009 on interiordesign.net

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet…then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

Rockwell Kent followed Moby Dick to the ends of the earth

 

Artist Rockwell Kent followed Moby Dick to the ends of the earth

Posted on December 18, 2021

For me, this is Rockwell Kent’s most magnificent evocation of Moby Dick. We see him breaching in the night, an act of exultation which demonstrates his godlike presence in the sea, and his cosmic relationship to the heavens. This is hardly an evil whale.

Moby-Dick prints by Rockwell Kent

And then there were humans and leviathans, both pursuing light and the night. Where to? Why? Because Ahab is evil? Or is the white whale? Melville found horror in whiteness, but his profound and prescient chapter on the subject deflects nearly as much as it reflects.