Rockwell Kent was born in 1882 in Tarrytown New York to a well off family. However, after his father died when Kent was 6 years old, his mother was left with nothing. From the generosity of his wealthy Aunt Jo, he was able to attend Horace Mann School, a private school that taught him mechanical drawing. His Aunt Jo played a very important role in his life, and she was also one of Kents first influences. He developed some of his art skills with her in her work through painting china. In 1900, Kent began to pursue architecture at Columbia University, despite his desire to continue doing art. While attending his classes at Columbia, Kent also took classes at William Merritt Chase's art school. In the summer of 1903, Kent had the opportunity to apprentice under Abbot Handerson Thayer thanks to existing connections from his Aunt Jo. After seeing him paint, Thayer told Kent to pursue his own work. Kent eventually decided to stop taking classes at the art school and moved to Monhegan Island through Henri's recommendation. While there, he mainly painted landscapes.

In the beginning of his art career in Maine he found very few jobs, but eventually found success building houses for people using his knowledge of architecture. For a number of years, he worked as a common laborer working as a carpenter, an architect, and a lobsterman. He believed that these jobs were what set him apart from the more elitist modern artists, choosing to work with the people instead of just observing them. In 1907, Claussen Galleries gave him his first show in New York and soon after he married his first wife Kathleen Whiting. 

Kent traveled to many different places throughout his life, living in Newfoundland, Alaska, Greenland, Tierra Del Fuego and eventually settling down in a farm he named Asgaard. 

As an artist he was most well known for his illustrations, primarily his illustrations of Melville's Moby Dick. He was also someone who was known widely for his political affiliations and opinions, and he was very vocal about being aligned to the left. As a result, he was targeted as a member of the communist party despite it being false. Because of this, his career declined and he sold a majority of his works to the Soviet Union who enjoyed his works. After he died in 1971, Rockwell Kent was buried on Asgaard.