A Critique of Cradling Wheat
Often times people tend to look at a work of art and only see apicture. Later, if one looks closer a clear message or meaning isdepicted by the artist. Thomas Hart Benton's work, CradlingWheat, for example is just a picture at first glance, but as oneexamines the painting closer, the story behind it becomes evident. This tempera and oil on board composition illustrates fourmen in a field threshing and bundling wheat. Benton draws theviewers eye forward by placing the characters in the foreground ofthe work and the surrounding landscape in the back. Here, theAmerican artist presents the focal point he intended. The faces ofthe men in the piece are all hidden by hats, distance, or turnedbacks. By hiding their faces the conclusion c
Benton emphasizes the type of menby presenting them in similar clothing. While most of the background exclusively sets the scene, thissubsequent wheat field also seems to signify the vast workload . All dressed in charcoaltrousers and sky-blue work shirts, they appear to be wearinguniforms. Behind the wild foliage is another spacial field of a light shadeof green. The brightness of the color of the wheat also adds to the 3atmosphere created by the artist. Perhaps the artist feels that most farm hands wereno-named and insignificant and expresses his opinion by givingthem these characteristics. It appearsto be a second wheat field of a darker shade of tan. Following the light green field is yet another field. Inaddition to the wheat, a few small wildflowers are scatteredthroughout the field. Benton combines texture and a vivid shade of tan to bring thewheat field to life. The secondary part of the composition, the background, doesnothing more than set the mood or atmosphere and provide aspecific landscape for the work. By adding this field, Benton implies that the farm growsa variety of crops, but again, it chiefly adds to the landscape andlittle more than that. The tawnyhue of this field gives a shaded effect achieving a distant air. The use of the dark emerald vegetation emphasizes thecertainty that the scene is on an immense farm. Thereis a constancy of wheat and a constancy of labor and while theclever, American artist is aiming to show the life of a farmhand, headded the flowers to simply break up the invariability.
Common topics in this essay:
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,
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american artist,
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