Selected Images

Click on an image below to learn more.

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  Winslow Homer, The Last Days of Harvest, 1873
  Winslow Homer, The Last Days of Harvest, 1873

  Winslow Homer
  American, 1836–1910
  The Last Days of Harvest, 1873
  Woodcut on newspaper
  Gift of John D. Hatch, 70.10

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  Thomas Hart Benton, Threshing, 1941
  Thomas Hart Benton, Threshing, 1941

  Thomas Hart Benton
  American, 1889–1975
  Threshing, 1941
  Lithograph on paper
  Gift in memory of Alan R. Liederman from his children, 1991.84

  Thomas Hart Benton’s wide popularity stemmed from his choice of enduring subject—the charms and challenges of American rural life—and the accessible realist style that he used to convey it. These prints are each based on paintings that were made available as lithographs at broadly affordable prices through the Associated American Artists organization. Though often celebratory of country life, Benton’s imagery alluded to harder times, as well, in works such as The Fence Mender and Prodigal Son, which transforms the biblical story of loss into a Depression-era drama.

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  Grant Wood, Fertility, 1939
  Grant Wood, Fertility, 1939

  Grant Wood
  American, 1892–1942
  Fertility, 1939
  Lithograph on paper
  Gift in memory of Alan R. Liederman from his children, 1991.95

  Hard times often were not on display in Grant Wood’s orderly Midwestern farm scenes. Well-tended fields and tidy barns are consistent features of this Iowa artist’s pictures. In this suite of four prints, Wood makes subtle reference to his most celebrated painting, a stoic (if sarcastic) portrayal of a farmer and his wife, known as American Gothic (1930). The picture’s famous white farmhouse appears in the distance in Fertility. These prints, which Wood made separately over time, collectively celebrate the land’s fertile potential with fields ready to sow or yielding bountiful harvest.

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  Marion Greenwood, Mississippi Girl, 1945
  Marion Greenwood, Mississippi Girl, 1945

  Marion Greenwood
  American, 1909–1970
  Mississippi Girl, 1945
  Lithograph on paper
  Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection, 1991.152

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  John S. de Martelly, Looking at the Sunshine, 1942
  John S. de Martelly, Looking at the Sunshine, 1942

  John S. de Martelly
  American, 1903–1980
  Looking at the Sunshine, 1942
  Lithograph on paper
  Gift of Carl and Marian Mullis, 1997.214

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  Dox Thrash, Georgia Cotton Crop, 1944–1945
  Dox Thrash, Georgia Cotton Crop, 1944–1945

  Dox Thrash
  American, 1893–1965
  Georgia Cotton Crop, 1944–1945
  Carborundum mezzotint and etching on paper
  Purchase with David C. Driskell African American Art Acquisition Fund, 2011.107

  Dox Thrash was one of the few African American artists appointed to oversee a regional division for the Federal Art Project in the 1930s. He was instrumental in the development of a new printmaking process. More efficient and economical than traditional methods, his carborundum method produced a broader range of tonal qualities, allowing for the deep, rich blacks that lent his work an ethereal effect. In this picture of a rural farm scene, he intentionally obscures fine detail. The subject is, in fact, a memory of his youth and his family’s sharecropper farm near Griffin, Georgia.

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  Peter Sekaer, St. Clairesville, Ohio, 1936, printed ca. 1936
  Peter Sekaer, St. Clairesville, Ohio, 1936, printed ca. 1936

  Peter Sekaer
  American, born Denmark, 1901–1950
  St. Clairesville, Ohio, 1936, printed ca. 1936
  Gelatin silver print
  Gift of the Peter Sekaer Estate, 2013.646

  As part of the New Deal initiatives launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat the economic devastation of the Depression, photographers were engaged by various government agencies to record circumstances across America. Photographers Arthur Rothstein and Peter Sekaer, among scores of others, made visible the tragedies and heroics they encountered in rural communities from Pennsylvania to California. Very little was off limits to their probing cameras. This collection of four pictures is typical of the subjects they sought to document—how people worked and lived and the routines of their daily lives.

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  Andrew Wyeth, Study for The Quaker, 1975
  Andrew Wyeth, Study for The Quaker, 1975

  Andrew Wyeth
  American, 1917–2009
  Study for The Quaker, 1975
  Watercolor on paper
  Gift of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth, 2006.60

  Andrew Wyeth filled his compositions with symbols that explore common themes of memory, nostalgia, and loss. Here, in seemingly silent conversation, two Revolutionary war–era suitcoats hang in the artist’s rural Pennsylvania studio. The eerie scene evokes the past in layers upon the present: the eighteenth-century coats hang on the mantel in a nineteenth-century schoolhouse, which Wyeth, in the twentieth century, converted into his workspace retreat. Through the window, a view into the wooded landscape offers only an insider’s clue to this otherwise disorienting, timeless picture.

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  Gordon Parks, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, printed 2012
  Gordon Parks, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, printed 2012

  Gordon Parks
  American, 1912–2006
  Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Mobile, Alabama, 1956, printed 2012
  Pigmented inkjet print
  Gift of The Gordon Parks Foundation, 2014.386.4

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  Dale Nichols, Company for Supper, undated
  Dale Nichols, Company for Supper, undated

  Dale Nichols
  American, 1904–1995
  Company for Supper, undated
  Lithograph
  Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection, 1991.204

  The idyllic, snowy world of Regionalist painter Dale Nichols charmed his mid-twentieth-century audiences. Nichols’s Midwestern farm scenes like Company for Supper have nostalgic appeal. Here, a sleigh pulls guests across the picturesque landscape while a cozy farmhouse and trim-looking barn in the distance offer a sense of warm serenity. With the snow settled into a blanket of white on the fields, the promise of a jovial gathering lies ahead.

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  Luigi Lucioni, Summer Shadows, undated
  Luigi Lucioni, Summer Shadows, undated

  Luigi Lucioni
  American, born Italy, 1900–1988
  Summer Shadows, undated
  Etching on paper
  Gift of Carl and Marian Mullis, 1994.174

  In 1931, Luigi Lucioni took a commission to paint a Vermont landscape. He was captivated by the region’s natural beauty and ultimately settled there. His precise, articulate, cheerful pictures reveal something of his love for his new home. The sun shines on these humble but tidy farmhouses of Lucioni’s Vermont. An immigrant from northern Italy, Lucioni claimed to feel a connection between these two rural places. The verdant countryside and majestic mountains of New England inspired memories of his first childhood home.

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  Jamie Wyeth, Runaway Pig from The Farm Suite, ca. 1980
  Jamie Wyeth, Runaway Pig from The Farm Suite, ca. 1980

  Jamie Wyeth
  American, born 1946
  Runaway Pig from The Farm Suite, ca. 1980
  Etching and drypoint on wove paper
  Gift of LaTrelle Brewster, 2009.5.3

  Jamie Wyeth (son of painter Andrew Wyeth) deftly employs etching and drypoint techniques to capture the varying textures and tones of animal fur, a bee’s hive, and a straw nest. Wyeth’s jarring close-up perspectives, dramatic shadowing, rich tonal qualities, and precise details elevate these humble subjects to near Old Master status. Featuring animals from around his homes in the rural Brandywine River Valley in eastern Pennsylvania and coastal Maine.