That Cliff Rock - Essay

That Cliff Rock beside Pulpit Rock
(to the right of Pulpit Rock, land view)

Untitled, from the Monhegan  series 

Morris Kantor (1896-1974), Russian-American
Pencil on paper, 14" x 11" (w x h), 1944
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

This is the standing rock to the right of Pulpit Rock when looking down from land. This photo view's perspective is to the right of Morris Kantor's drawing view. He drew it in 1944. Ironically, I photographed the same rock in 2026, though I didn't discover Morris Kantor's drawing until after I returned to the mainland when I was perusing online Monhegan art files in the Smithsonian American Art Museum website.

Above my plein air setup is Pulpit Rock. To the right is the unnamed cliff rock that Morris Kantor chose to draw from approximately this perspective.

In the summers of 1916-1919 when Edward Hopper was drawing and painting on Monhegan Island, in this drawing he included this rock as a bordering rock on the right when he made this drawing of Pulpit Rock at the center.

Study of Rocks at Monhegan (Pulpit Rock)

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American

Lithographic crayon on paper, 16" x 10" (w x h), circa 1916-1919

Josephine N. Hopper Bequest to 

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Morris Kantor, born in Russia (Belarus), was a painter. In 1906, at 10-years-old, he was brought to New York City where he learned to support himself at a very young age. By the time he was twenty, he'd saved enough money working in the garment district to enroll at the Independent School of Art in New York. Kantor went on to become a prominent artist and teacher in New York City. He taught at the Art Students League for thirty years. He continued to travel and study, and in 1928 married fellow artist Martha Ryther, a recognized master of painting on glass. A prolific artist, Morris Kantor produced a diverse body of work, exploring many styles ranging from abstraction to realism.

Today, Seagulls still visit this Morris Kantor drawn rock and paint the leading seaside viewing edge in accented-edge-white, though it isn't an archival white.