Go Ahead, Make a Scene!

Regionalism, an art movement from the 1930s that emphasizes local landscapes and ideals, is sometimes called American Scene painting.

John Steuart Curry made lots of scenes! The regionalist painter was born on this day in 1897. Like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, Curry was a major American Scene painter of the 1930s. Many of his subjects were taken from American history and his most famous mural, The Tragic Prelude (1938–1940), is displayed in Topeka at the Kansas State Capitol.

In 1935, Curry wrote, "The artist ought to paint people doing things, or if he paints a portrait, to show the personality and inner meaning of the life before him." What personality traits do you think he captured in the self-portrait above? Tell us at 1001days@si.edu.

Source: Joan Stahl. American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995).

Pictured top: John Steuart Curry, 1897–1946, Self-Portrait, 1928, charcoal, conte crayon, and pencil on paper, 25 5/16 x 19 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.

Pictured bottom: John Steuart Curry, 1897–1946, Our Good Earth, 1942, lithograph, 12 13/16 x 10 3/16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Frank McClure.