Everyday life in the 1930s wasn’t a day at the beach, as these paintings bear out. We see train wrecks, shotgun shacks, and alleys draped with telephone wire.
The tradition of painting outdoors on this particular hilltop dates back to 1907, when a well-known American Impressionist purchased the abandoned farmstead.
Cutting-edge in its time, turn-of-the-century mid-western Impressionist painting laid the groundwork for the American art establishment in the heartland.