Catalogue Entry
In the nineteenth century, attitudes towards work changed, especially in the northern states of America. Although some artists made fun of “country bumpkins,” in general, farm work and farmers began to take on greater prestige and admiration. During the 1860s, Johnson returned to his birthplace in Maine to make studies of maple sugar production and also to seek out subjects of a rural life far removed from slavery. Barn interiors and home interiors show the families of farmers husking corn, winnowing grain, of taking a smoke. Exteriors show farmers at harvest time, loggers cutting trees or simply relaxing. In choosing scenes of rural white America Johnson was following in the tradition of Francis William Edmonds, George H. Durrie, Tompkins H. Matteson, and William Sidney Mount—a tradition popularized by the prints of Currier and Ives. —PH
Fenimore Art Museum website, label text, accessed July 6, 2021: "Johnson specialized in themes that recorded and idealized life before the advent of industrialism. His painting owes its appeal to the incorporation of the values of hard work, independence, honesty, and service to the community. In the Woodcutter, Johnson depicts an ordinary man, probably clearing land for his farm, as a heroic figure. The man's posture is upright, his eyes scan the horizon, and his mastery over his environment is symbolized by his axe and the manner in which he rests one foot on the stump of the felled tree."
On masking tape: Box 7-5
