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Ralston Crawford, Buffalo Grain Elevators, 1937, oil on canvas, 40 1⁄4 x 50 1⁄4 in. (102.1 x 127.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1976.133
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Artwork Details
- Title
- Buffalo Grain Elevators
- Artist
- Date
- 1937
- Location
- Dimensions
- 40 1⁄4 x 50 1⁄4 in. (102.1 x 127.6 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Landscape — New York — Buffalo
- Architecture Exterior — industry — grain elevator
- Object Number
- 1976.133
Artwork Description
But this painting is more than an artist's exercise. Crawford grew up in the city and shipped aboard Great Lakes freighters with his father. In the late 1930s, Buffalo began to lose its central position in the grain business when Ontario's Welland Canal opened, providing cheaper freight routes to the East Coast. Crawford used chilly colors and raking light to suggest an industrial complex frozen in silence, signaling the end of an era in his hometown.