Visitation

Walton Ford, Visitation, 2004, color etching, aquatint, spit-bite and drypoint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2010.3
Copied Walton Ford, Visitation, 2004, color etching, aquatint, spit-bite and drypoint on paper, 44 x 31 in. (111.7 x 78.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2010.3

Artwork Details

Title
Visitation
Artist
Printer
Wingate Studio
Publisher
Blue Heron Press
Date
2004
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
44 x 31 in. (111.7 x 78.8 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
color etching, aquatint, spit-bite and drypoint on paper
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — mountain
  • Animal — bird — pigeon
  • Object — letter
Object Number
2010.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2010.3

Artwork Description

In Visitation, a large flock of passenger pigeons gorge themselves in a field strewn with fruit and nuts. Ford’s scene recalls a written description by Audubon, “Whilst feeding, their avidity is at times so great that in attempting to swallow a large acorn or nut, they are seen gasping for a long while as if in the agonies of suffocation.” The birds’ ravenous feasting on the bounty of the land could symbolize the profligate exploitation of natural resources perpetuated by European settlers in the New World, which ultimately led to the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Ford also notes that the image alludes to the human tendency of blaming victims for their own destruction.


The Singing & the Silence: Birds in Contemporary Art, 2014