Farm

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Self-taught artist John Kane took up painting relatively late in life. A Scottish immigrant who had previously worked as a day laborer, Kane often depicted cheerful scenes of rural life in his canvases. A quaint farmhouse, surrounded by evenly planted flowers and vegetables, anchors the composition of this verdant landscape. In the foreground a farmer carries pails on a shoulder yoke while, in the background, laborers pitch hay into a cart amid rolling green hills. In a letter from 1934, Albert Barnes describes his difficulty in placing this painting "harmoniously" in an ensemble with other works, because of its color scheme. He was eventually led to put it over a door, where it hangs today.

Source ↗