Landfall's Kent Cottage
Landfall's Kent Cottage is the heart of the Landfall Trust. It sits on the eleven-acre Landfall preserve along the shores of Brigus Bay, overlooking the Town of Brigus and Conception Bay. The cottage was built in the late 1700s or early 1800s. It is one of the last remaining structures of its vintage and is of substantial historical significance. It was designated a Registered Heritage Structure in 1988 by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Landfall Trust is working to locate co-sponsors to help conserve this remarkable structure, the heart of Landfall and seat of Trust artist-in-residence program offerings.
Additional Kent Cottage history can be viewed at the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website.
Over the years, Kent Cottage has hosted an interesting collection of residents with very comfortable appreciations for the arts and cultural heritage. Please continue reading...
Rockwell Kent
Artist, writer and adventurer, Rockwell Kent resided for a year and a half, during 1914-15, at Kent cottage. His subsequent fame and antics brought considerable notoriety and attention to the property. Kent first came to Newfoundland in 1910 seeking a location for an art school. He last visited in 1968 as a guest of Premeir, Joesph Smallwood. For more information, please see:
- The Kent Collector, a tri-annual journal, published by Plattsburgh State University of New York Art Museum and available by subscription, is a valuable source of information about Rockwell Kent. The University holds a large collection of Kent's work.
- Rockwell Kent, The Newfoundland Work is a notable 1987 book published by Dalhousie University Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Please see: ISBN 0-7703-0217-3.
- Rockwell Kent’s Distant Shores: The Story of an Exhibition,
by Constance Martin, published in the journal ARCTIC,
VOL. 55, NO. 1 (MARCH 2002) P. 101–108. Please see: Rockwell Kent’s Distant Shores: The Story of an Exhibition
.
Albert Edward Harris
Gifted artist, Albert Edward Harris (A.E.), an English engineer, owned and occupied Kent Cottage between 1929 and 1933. Very little is published on Mr. Harris, but a wonderful exhibition booklet, titled A.E.Harris in Newfoundland, documents his time in Newfoundland, the cottage, and is illustrated with many of his paintings and etchings.
The out of-print booklet was organized by the (then known) Art Gallery at Memorial University and supported a 1983 Harris exhibit at the Gallery. After Mr. Harris's death, his paintings and etchings were left in trust to the Newfoundland Art Society and eventurally transferred to the provincial government's Cultural Affairs Division.
Image to right: Kent Cottage Christmas Card, 2.5 x 4", etching, circa 1930, A.E. Harris
Bradley Jacob Folensbee, Jr.
"There is a happiness here, a happiness you feel in the house." — Jake Folensbee, CBC interview
Bradley Jacob Folensbee, Jr. (Jake), of Seattle, Washington, purchased the property in 1953. He was a dedicated educator, amatuer artist, writer and pianist. Jake’s period of ownership spanned 51 years; he invested considerably in Landfall’s preservation and acquired adjoining properties to improve its environmental protection. Jake's legacy is found in the restoration of Kent Cottage and enabling the creation of the Landfall Trust, preserving and protecting the historic cottage and enabling its use for the Trust's artist-in-residence program.
A limited number of Jake's watercolour reprints of Mid-Century Brigus Scenes are available on the Landfall Press page. Proceeds from fine-art print sales support the Landfall Legacy Endowment.
Image to left: Landfall, Kent Cottage & Brigus Harbour, 20 x 30", acrylic on canvas,
circa 1970, Jake Folensbee, on display with other works at the Brigus Public Library.