Punkin Pickin'
This October scene by John Whetten Ehninger is one of fifty-four paintings and sculptures in the exhibit Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.On a crisp autumn day, several farm workers labor side-by-side harvesting a bountiful crop. The man, who pauses in his work to talk with the young woman, is probably the owner of the farm. A boy, perhaps his son, waits in the wagon bed to drive the produce to market. The scene celebrates the prosperity of American agriculture following the Civil War and boasts of regional crops that were marketed nationwide.
Visit Young America online or in person at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, until November 5, 2000.
Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: John Whetten Ehninger, 1827–89, October, 1867, oil, 32 1/4 x 54 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.
This October scene by John Whetten Ehninger is one of fifty-four paintings and sculptures in the exhibit Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.On a crisp autumn day, several farm workers labor side-by-side harvesting a bountiful crop. The man, who pauses in his work to talk with the young woman, is probably the owner of the farm. A boy, perhaps his son, waits in the wagon bed to drive the produce to market. The scene celebrates the prosperity of American agriculture following the Civil War and boasts of regional crops that were marketed nationwide.