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
Hills opinion letter, 1987: "It is curious as a picture, because the face of the solitary man is not looking out at the viewer. Furthermore, the man does not seem to be doing anything except looking down as he stands in a field surrounded by shoulder-high corn. However, Johnson did any number of paintings of farmers in which their faces are obscured: looking away fron the viewer, tipping up a jug while drinking, bending over to measure off something, etc."
- Portrait pose: