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Wisconsin Landscape by John Steuart Curry

John Steuart Curry · 1938-01-01

John Steuart Curry painted "Wisconsin Landscape" in 1938, and it now hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A leading figure of American Regionalism alongside Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, Curry made his name painting the drama of rural life in the heartland. But his home state of Kansas largely wished he had not.

Look at how the storm dominates the sky, pushing deep shadows across the right foreground while a shaft of light illuminates the middle-ground fields. The composition balances on that vivid red barn, the one saturated warm color in a muted world of greens, golds, and gray. The brushwork in the clouds is thick and energetic, giving the approaching storm a physical weight.

The irony of Curry's career is that Kansans found his paintings unflattering and his subjects embarrassing. He depicted tornadoes, prairie fires, and the abolitionist John Brown during the violent Bleeding Kansas period. When he completed murals for the Kansas State Capitol, including the controversial "Tragic Prelude" showing a wild-eyed John Brown, the public backlash was so fierce that the state legislature tried to block his works from being displayed.

This painting shows none of the violence that upset his critics. It is simply a field under a magnificent, threatening sky, but you can feel the same friction: a beautiful place that does not promise an easy life.

Details

Drama roils in the air; the ground holds firm beneath it.
Drama roils in the air; the ground holds firm beneath it.
The lone red barn anchors the whole scene.
The lone red barn anchors the whole scene.
Kansans recoiled. They said his art made the state look backward.
Kansans recoiled. They said his art made the state look backward.
Curry painted tornadoes, floods, and John Brown. The state tried to block his murals.
Curry painted tornadoes, floods, and John Brown. The state tried to block his murals.
Here, the light that breaks through is almost biblical.
Here, the light that breaks through is almost biblical.
Transcript

A Kansas painter made a landscape of stubborn beauty. Drama roils in the air; the ground holds firm beneath it. The lone red barn anchors the whole scene. Kansans recoiled. They said his art made the state look backward. Curry painted tornadoes, floods, and John Brown. The state tried to block his murals. Here, the light that breaks through is almost biblical. He was the most famous painter Kansas ever produced, and its most rejected.