Turkey Pasture in Kentucky

Artist George Fuller (American, 1822-1884)

CultureAmerican

Date1878

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 27 1/2 x 40 1/2 in. (69.9 x 102.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 36 3/4 x 49 3/4 in. (93.3 x 126.4 cm)

InscribedSigned lower left: G Fuller

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.649

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 213

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. It is pastoral scene with several turkeys in the foreground. There are at least four figures, and all appear to be female. The young girl in the foreground is biracial. The lighting is quiet and subdued. The last rays of the sun are gently highlighting the figures in the mid-ground. The top quarter of the canvas shows trees silhouetted against the yellowish sky.

Label TextGeorge Fuller American, 1822–1884 Turkey Pasture in Kentucky, 1878 Oil on canvas George Fuller’s ethereal style of painting features loose, painterly brushstrokes and subtle gradients of color, creating an evocative vision that fuses memory and imagination. After a promising start to his career, Fuller abandoned the artistic profession for more than a decade. Instead, he returned to his family’s farm, where he practiced agriculture and pursued painting as a means of personal inquiry and expression. In the late 1870s, he mounted a triumphant return to the art world, exhibiting a group of landscape scenes like this one based upon his memories of trips through the South before the Civil War. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.649 ProvenanceWilliam H. Abercrombie, 1922; Vose Galleries, Boston, Mass.; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1958; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryNational Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., 1878. "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of George Fuller," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., April 24 - May 13, 1884. (Exh. cat. no. 153) "George Fuller Centennial Exhibition," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., April 9 - May 20, 1923. (Exh. cat. no. 5) "The Controversial Century, 1850-1950, Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., June 16 - September 3, 1962; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, September 28 - November 4, 1962. (Exh. cat. not paged) "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 157) "Tonalism: An American Experience," Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, N.Y., 1982. (Exh. cat. no. 28) "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. "The Agrarian Ideal: Monet, van Gogh, Homer," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017. "American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art," Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, February 6 - June 6, 2021.Published ReferencesJosiah B. Millet, et al., _George Fuller: His Life and Works_ (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1886). Charles de Kay, "George Fuller, Painter," _The Magazine of Art_ 12 (1889): 350, 354. Charles F. Comfort and William S.A. Dale, _The Controversial Century: 1850-1950_, exh. cat., Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1962, not paged. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 157. Sarah Burns, "A Study of the Life and Poetic Vision of George Fuller (1822-1884)," _American Art Journal_ 13 (Autumn 1981): 22, n34, 25, 26, fig. 17, 30. Sarah Burns, "Images of Slavery: George Fuller's Depictions of the Antebellum South," _American Art Journal_ 15 (Summer 1983), 53-55, 57. Sarah Burns, "Black, Quadroon, Gypsy: Women in the Art of George Fuller," _The Massachusetts Review_ 26, no. 23 (Summer/Autumn 1985): 413, fig. 11. Trevor Fairbrother, _The Bostonians: Painters of an Elegant Age, 1870-1930_, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1986, 35-36. ISBN: 0878462694, 0878462716 Sarah Burns, _Pastoral Inventions: Rural Life in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture_ (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 222, 233, fig. 104. ISBN: 087722580X Ilene Susan Fort and Michael Quick, _American Art: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection_ (Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991), 187. ISBN: 0875871550, 0295970278 H. Barbara Weinberg, ed., _Childe Hassam, American Impressionist_, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, 40, fig. 34. ISBN: 1-58839-120-5 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 105, no. 63. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6