American School, 20th Century The Fruits of Labor

Description:

American School, 20th Century

The Fruits of Labor
Unsigned, a stamp from Alon Gallery on paper backing.
Oil on canvas, 15 1/2 x 36 in. (39.4 x 91.4 cm),framed.
Condition: Fine drying cracks.
N.B. The present work may have been a post office mural study commissioned by the government under the New Deal. Post office murals commonly depicted idealized scenes of agriculture, stressing themes of self-sufficiency, illustriousness, abundance, and tranquility. The farmer "was a model of the self-reliant individual producing for the common good…and…the model of man's role in reaping the beneficence of nature and of constancy in the midst of the rise and fall of cities and nations." (1) The family unit was a common motif which symbolized "traditional social cohesion and confidence in the future."(2) In the present work, the rewards of hard-work are emphasized. The presence of the grain bin in the background symbolizes abundance from previous harvests; the picnic baskets of nature's pleasures to be shared that day, and the field of young corn of growth and future returns. (1) Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz. Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984. Pg. 48. (2) Ibid, 47.
Estimate $800-1,200

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