A Critique of Cradling Wheat

picture. Later, if one looks closer a clear message or meaning is

depicted by the artist. Thomas Hart Benton’s work, Cradling

Wheat, for example is just a picture at first glance, but as one

examines the painting closer, the story behind it becomes evident.

This tempera and oil on board composition illustrates four

men in a field threshing and bundling wheat. Benton draws the

viewers eye forward by placing the characters in the foreground of

the work and the surrounding landscape in the back. Here, the

American artist presents the focal point he intended. The faces of

the men in the piece are all hidden by hats, distance, or turned

backs. By hiding their faces the conclusion c

. . .
Benton emphasizes the type of men

by presenting them in similar clothing.

While most of the background exclusively sets the scene, this

subsequent wheat field also seems to signify the vast workload

. All dressed in charcoal

trousers and sky-blue work shirts, they appear to be wearing

uniforms.

Behind the wild foliage is another spacial field of a light shade

of green. The brightness of the color of the wheat also adds to the

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atmosphere created by the artist. Perhaps the artist feels that most farm hands were

no-named and insignificant and expresses his opinion by giving

them these characteristics. It appears

to be a second wheat field of a darker shade of tan.

Following the light green field is yet another field. In

addition to the wheat, a few small wildflowers are scattered

throughout the field.

Benton combines texture and a vivid shade of tan to bring the

wheat field to life.

The secondary part of the composition, the background, does

nothing more than set the mood or atmosphere and provide a

specific landscape for the work. By adding this field, Benton implies that the farm grows

a variety of crops, but again, it chiefly adds to the landscape and

little more than that. The tawny

hue of this field gives a shaded effect achieving a distant air. The use of the dark emerald vegetation emphasizes the

certainty that the scene is on an immense farm. There

is a constancy of wheat and a constancy of labor and while the

clever, American artist is aiming to show the life of a farmhand, he

added the flowers to simply break up the invariability.

Common topics in this essay:
Cradling Wheat, , wheat field, shade tan, field field, american artist, wheat benton,

Approximate Word count = 513
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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