Your patron is probably long gone, but...
Could it be a Thomas Hart Benton lithograph?
Either "Cradling Wheat" or "Island Hay" has the
appropriate theme. His painting "July Hay" is
another variant. However, all the men appear to
be wearing their shirts!
The WPA artist Marguerite Zorach did a mural in
an Indiana post office entitled "Hay Making"; one
of its figures is shirtless. The farm worker was
a popular theme in American Depression-era
representational art, so searches in books
about the New Deal, the American Scene movement,
Social Realism, or American Regionalism might
turn up something. Joe Jones was another WPA
artist who often depicted farmers.
(It seem that before the 20th century, farmers
generally wore lots of clothing, at least when
they were having their likenesses painted!
See the common folk depicted by Winslow Homer,
Jean-Francois Millet, Vincent Van Gogh,
Currier and Ives, et al.)
--K.A. Bayruns
Seattle, Washington
At 10:51 AM 10/21/04 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear colleages:
>Does this description ring any bells with anyone out there? A picture
>of muscular men, without shirts, baling and harvesting hay. Picture may
>be an engraving of some kind. Our patron saw it in an advertisement for
>food and wine.
>
>Thanks as always for any leads.
>Stan
>
>
>
>Stan Shiebert
>Librarian
>Arts, Recreation & Literature Department
>Seattle Public Library
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
|