The Farmer’s Kitchen

Ivan Albright, The Farmer's Kitchen, ca. 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.74
Ivan Albright, The Farmer's Kitchen, ca. 1934, oil on canvas, 36 x 30 1⁄8 in. (91.5 x 76.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.74

Artwork Details

Title
The Farmer’s Kitchen
Artist
Date
ca. 1934
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
36 x 30 1⁄8 in. (91.5 x 76.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — cat
  • Architecture Interior — domestic — kitchen
  • Object — furniture — stove
  • Object — vegetable — radish
  • New Deal — Public Works of Art Project — Illinois
  • Dress — accessory — apron
  • Dress — accessory — eye wear
  • Figure female — elderly — knee length
  • Occupation — domestic — cooking
Object Number
1964.1.74
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1964.1.74

Artwork Description

Ivan Albright's obsessively detailed painting style put on canvas the crushing impact of drudgery and advancing age. The swollen, red-knuckled hands of this farmwife preparing to clean radishes, pushed forward until they are impossible to ignore, evoke an aching sympathy. The cast-iron stove has become a tool of torture this woman cannot avoid in her daily grind. Wrinkles multiply over her drooping flesh, speaking too eloquently of years full of ceaseless labor. The family cat offers this farm wife no companionship, but shrinks away from her. Outside in the fields must be a farmer husband equally worn by long labor. The burden of empathy for this hard life, made yet harder by the Depression, is almost unbearable.

Who is this poor farmwife, limp with weariness and lined with toil? One of Albright's neighbors in Warrenville, Illinois, posed for the painting. But no individual can explain the emotional freight of Albright's depiction. He aged and distorted every person he painted, young or old. Albright painted flesh that does not heal as living flesh does, but crumples and shows the scars of every event with equally cruel clarity.

1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibition label

Works by this artist (5 items)

View all artworks
Ivan Albright, Into the Morning Sleeping, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust, 1978.146.4
Into the Morning Sleeping
Artist
Not on view
Ivan Albright, The Farmer's Kitchen, ca. 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.74
The Farmer’s Kitchen
Artist
Dateca. 1934
oil on canvas
Not on view
Ivan Albright, Self-Portrait--55 East Division Street, 1948, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1966.64.1
Self-Portrait – 55 East Division Street
Artist
Date1948
lithograph on paper
Not on view
Ivan Albright, Follow Me, 1946, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Moses Lasky, 2004.32.1
Follow Me
Artist
Date1946
lithograph on paper
Not on view

Related Books

1934_500.jpg
1934: A New Deal for Artists
During the Great Depression, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a “new deal for the American people,” initiating government programs to foster economic recovery. Roosevelt’s pledge to help “the forgotten man” also embraced America’s artists. The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) enlisted artists to capture “the American Scene” in works of art that would embellish public buildings across the country. Although it lasted less than one year, from December 1933 to June 1934, the PWAP provided employment for thousands of artists, giving them an important role in the country’s recovery. Their legacy, captured in more than fifteen thousand artworks, helped “the American Scene” become America seen.