Our Good Earth

1943, gifted by the U.S. Treasury Department to the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture [now called the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]; 1999, deposited as a long-term loan to Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

• Bell, Michael. "Country Boys: Masculinity and Rural Life." University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2006. cover
• Tanaka, Masayuki. "American Heroism." Tokyo: The National Museum of Western Art, 2001. no. 40
• Owings, Frank N., Jr., "Frank Lloyd Wright and Regionalists: Visions for America," Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly Vol. 14 No. 1 (2003): 4-15. pp. 4-15
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The Gloria and Donald B. Marron Collection of American Prints. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1981. p. 143, no. 101
• Junker, Patricia. "John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West." Madison, WI: Elvehjem Museum of Art and New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1998. pp. 70, 145, pl. 63; fig. 16
• Wisconsin Humanities Council, [Brochure], 2002.
• Bertels, Alice S. "John Steuart Curry: The Road Home." Overland Park: Leathers Publication, 2006
• "SchoolsMusuemsART (SMART) Project." Madison, WI: Madison Metropolitan School District, 2002.
• Seaton, Elizabeth G., Jane Myers, and Gail Windisch, eds. "Art for Every Home: Associated American Artists 1934-2000." Manhattan, Kansas: Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University and Yale University Press, 2015. p. 128, no. 9.4
• Baker, D. Frederick, "A University Collects: The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin," in Antiques & Fine Art Magazine (Autumn/Winter 2013) vol. XII, issue 6 :184-193. p. 1, no. 185
• Weyl, Christina. “Our Good Earth? By Nathan Meltz,” Art in Print, vol. 7, number 5 (January-February, 2018): 50-51. p. 50
• Eldredge, Charles C. "We Gather Together: American Artists and the Harvest." Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2021. p. 104, fig. 54
• Lidtke, Thomas D. and Annemarie Sawkins. "A Creative Plate: The History of Wisconsin Art." Cedarburg, WI: Cedarburg Art Museum, 2021. p. 238, fig. 4.72

• John Steuart Curry: At Home in Wisconsin: Museum of Wisconsin Art, 6/27/2014–9/14/2014
• American Heroism: National Museum of Western Art, 7/23/2001–10/28/2001
• John Steuart Curry: Inventing the Middle West: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 3/7/1998–1/3/1999

Visual description written; awaiting editing and data inputThis large-scale painting depicts a farmer and two children standing in a large field of golden-yellow wheat below a vast sky. The wheat stalks lean to the left in a strong breeze. The farmer, wearing a straw cattleman''s hat, a blue-green shirt rolled above the elbow, and jean overalls, looks over their left shoulder with an expression of determination. In one hand, the farmer grasps three stalks of wheat. On the farmer''s right is a child with a red dress facing left, their auburn-red hair blowing in front of their face in the wind. On the farmer''s left, a child with short blonde hair, jean overalls, and a white shirt rolled to the elbows faces into the wind. Above them, the blue sky stretches expansively, with soft clouds. On the distant horizon, to the right of the figures, stands a barn.

• North America
• Paintings
• Wisconsin Artists & Artwork

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