Farm

Robert A. Darrah Miller, Farm, 1933-1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.140
Copied Robert A. Darrah Miller, Farm, 1933-1934, oil on canvas, 22 x 28 1⁄8 in. (55.9 x 71.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.140

Artwork Details

Title
Farm
Artist
Date
1933-1934
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
22 x 28 1⁄8 in. (55.9 x 71.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — farmhouse
  • Architecture Exterior — farm — barn
  • Landscape — farm
  • Landscape — season — winter
  • New Deal — Public Works of Art Project — Pennsylvania
Object Number
1964.1.140
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1964.1.140

Artwork Description

Robert Miller's painting of a Pennsylvania farm amid snow-covered hills seems the very picture of cold rural silence. No one travels the road running past the farm. The people and livestock all shelter in the solidly built house and barn. Even the trees are under cover for winter, cut back without a leaf braving the frosty air. Yet the sky is a rich blue, and the barn and house glow in warm tones of red and yellow. The diagonal lines of the trees and buildings suggest suppressed life waiting for spring.

The farms around Miller's home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, held the promise of more than sprouting crops. He was only one of the artists and writers attracted to Bucks County by the picturesque scenery. As the Depression pushed down real estate values, New York City theatrical luminaries such as George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart bought newly affordable Pennsylvania farms. They made an old mill into the Bucks County Playhouse. In New Hope, as in artistic centers across the country, the fresh life emerging in the spring of 1934 would be both creative and agricultural.

1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibition label

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.