The overcast sky, neglected buildings, and fallen monuments in Connecticut Autumn create an eerie landscape that evokes the poverty and despair of the 1930s. The young boy flying a kite appears full of hope and innocence, but a closer look reveals that his kite string crosses the power lines. The statue of an angel underscores the imminent tragedy, as he beckons to the boy from the monument yard (Baker, O. Louis Guglielmi, A Retrospective Exhibition, 1980).
“In 1932 … it was a considerably different world that I was to face, a world of changing values and frightening lack of money.” The artist, quoted in Miller and Barr, American Realists and Magic Realists, 1943
- Title
-
Connecticut Autumn
- Artist
- Date
- 1937
- Location
- Dimensions
- 23 7⁄8 x 30 in. (60.5 x 76.3 cm)
- Credit Line
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Transfer from General Services Administration
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on fiberboard
- Classifications
- Keywords
-
- Architecture – industry
- Architecture – industry – foundry
- Figure male – child – full length
- Landscape – season – autumn
- Monument – gravestone
- Recreation – sport and play – kite flying
- New Deal – Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project – New York City
- Object Number
-
1971.447.35
- Palette
- Linked Open Data
- Linked Open Data URI
