Picking Cotton

c. 1890

William Gilbert Gaul

Associated Names
William Gilbert Gaul

Painter, American, 1855 - 1919

This painting depicts a green field of cotton plants with white blossoms. Three individuals are seen harvesting the cotton. They appear to be wearing skirts and bonnets and have dark skin, although their faces aren’t detailed. The background includes buildings on the left and green trees against a pale blue sky with hints of grey. The painting utilizes loose, visible brushstrokes. The color scheme is warm and natural, featuring shades of green, brown, and muted tones.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Old Print Shop, Inc., New York); purchase February 1957 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1979

  • The Working American, District 1199, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, New York; Detroit Historical Museum; Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester; Chicago Historical Society; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, Massachusetts, (Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibition Service),15 September 1979 - 31 January 1981, no. 9, repro.

1981

  • Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL, 1981-1983, no. 27, repro.

1986

  • A Portrait of American Heritage: An Agrarian Art Exhibition, Briscoe Art Gallery, 3 February - 25 April 1986.

1988

  • Impressionism and the South, Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina, 20 September - 13 November 1988.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004 - 7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.

2008

  • The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 March - 27 July 2008, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1973

  • Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 2: Painters born from 1850 to 1910. Washington, 1973: 20, repro. 19.

2011

  • Cash, Sarah, ed. Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Washington, 2011: 298, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: G.Gaul

Wikidata ID

Q46631743

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