Plowing
Artist
William Morris Hunt
(American, 1824 - 1879)
CultureAmerican
Date1876
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 38 3/8 x 56 1/4 in. (97.5 x 142.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 46 x 64 in. (116.8 x 162.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 46 x 64 in. (116.8 x 162.6 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower left: WMH;
76
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.661
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 115-2 - Wonderstudio
Label TextWilliam Morris Hunt American, 1827–1879 Plowing, 1876 Oil on canvas Working in concert, men and animals drag a plow in an expansive landscape, overturning the thick earth of a New England field. William Morris Hunt’s monumental depiction of the simple dignity of agricultural labor was informed by the years he spent in France studying the work of the Barbizon school of painters, particularly Jean-Francois Millet. Following the example of the French artists, Hunt developed a naturalistic style, which emphasized the painter’s straightforward description of nature’s appearances over the refined finish of earlier American landscape painting. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.661ProvenanceThe artist; John R. Duff, Westwood, Mass., by 1879; his descendents; Mrs. William M. Bullard, New York; sale of her estate by Anderson Galleries, New York, Thursday, May 19-20, 1914; ...; Vose Galleries, Boston, Mass.; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by 1958; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1967; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"William Morris Hunt," Williams and Everett Gallery, Boston, Mass., March 1876. "Exhibition of the Works of William Morris Hunt," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., November 11 - December 15, 1879. (Exh. cat. no. 12) "Provincetown Past and Present," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., September 27 - December 6, 1967. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "An International Episode: Millet, Monet, and their North American Counterparts," The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tenn., November 21, 1982 - December 23, 1982; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Ill., January 8 - February 13, 1983; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., March 3 - April 30, 1983. (Exh. cat. no. 20) "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "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 ReferencesReview of the Williams and Everett Gallery exhibit, Boston Evening Transcript, March 1876. Edward Wheelwright, "Art," _Atlantic Monthly_ 37 (May 1876): 630. _Exhibition of the Works of William Morris Hunt_, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., 1879, no. 12. Charlotte C. Stopes, "An 'Unpublished' Painting by William Morris Hunt," _New York Times_ (May 10, 1914): SM11. Mahonri Sharp Young, "Primitive to Pop," _Apollo_ 107 (April 1978): 284. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 122. Laura Meixner, _An International Episode: Millet, Monet and their North American Counterparts_, exh. cat., Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tenn., 1982, 55-57, 95, 116, no. 20. Sally Webster, _William Morris Hunt 1824-1879_ (New York/England: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 125-127. ISBN: 0521345839 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), 104, no. 62. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6
