In the winter of 1908–1909, while living in Dublin, New
Hampshire, Rockwell Kent created what he called his "best known
example of that winter's work," The Road Roller, which depicts
the Dublin Township roller packing down the snow in his
driveway. This machine did not clear away snow from roads and
drives, rather it packed down the snow to form a solid surface.
The Road Roller is one of the few works that Kent painted from a
preliminary sketch. The painting is a fully developed
composition. A broad, continuous convex curve fills the lower
half of the canvas. The viewer's eye is immediately caught by
the direct gaze of the dog, which anchors the curve and in turn
leads to the main subject—the roller, the horses, and the men,
who are trying to control the opposing forces of gravity and
animal strength. Both the placement of the black-and-white
collie in the foreground and the slanting shadows on the
hillside establish a sense of depth. The thick impasto and fluid
brushstroke—reflecting Kent's early training un