Rockwell kent illustrations greenland inuit with kayak

Kent was inspired by rugged landscape and harsh climates of northern lands and Greenland was the ultimate experience. One might say his time in Greenland was Nirvana.1 Setting sail for Nuuk in June 1929 with two others on the cutter Direction, Kent first saw Greenland just south of Nuuk near the settlement of Narssaq.

While anchored in a nearby fjord a storm blew through and sank Direction on the rocks.2 That morning Kent set out across the Greenland landscape to find help. That was the beginning of his love affair with Greenland.

Having met Knud Rassmusen and Peter Freuchen in Nuuk during the Directions refitting, he began planning his return to Greenland for the summer of 1931.3 Kent came in the small island settlement of Illorsuit on the edge of the Uummannaq Fjord.
He built a house on the hillside overlooking the settlement, hired his housekeeper Salamina, and lived there for nearly eighteen months.  Constance Martin notes that: “Kent called th