Land of Cotton

Robert GwathmeyWW-1939-069880

1939·Watercolor and gouache, with pen and black ink, and touches of scraping, over traces of graphite on ivory wood pulp laminate board (illustration board)·55.7 × 76.2 cm (21 15/16 × 30 in.)

<p><em>Land of Cotton</em> is one of several works by Robert Gwathmey that illustrates the social conditions of tenant farmers and sharecroppers in the rural South. Although Gwathmey described himself as an “observer,” his images are not detached or dispassionate depictions of his subjects. This empathetic portrayal of cotton-field workers demonstrates Gwathmey’s close relationship with the people of rural Charlotte, North Carolina, and his desire to draw attention to their harsh way of life.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1939
Medium: Watercolor and gouache, with pen and black ink, and touches of scraping, over traces of graphite on ivory wood pulp laminate board (illustration board)
Dimensions: 55.7 × 76.2 cm (21 15/16 × 30 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Robert Gwathmey

Artist

Robert Gwathmey

Painting

Robert Gwathmey was an American painter whose social realist works addressed racial injustice and labor conditions in the rural South during the post-war era. Working primarily in oil on canvas, he depicted sharecroppers, cotton fields, and scenes of everyday life with a formal restraint that balanced documentary clarity against compositional sophistication. His figural paintings combined modernist abstraction with figurative narrative, creating a distinctive visual language rooted in 1930s social concern that persisted through the 1980s.

Manchester, VA, USA

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