Winter Valley
1944
Painter, American, 1909 - 1996

Never associated with any specific art movement, Lamar Dodd was a southern painter who worked in various styles throughout his long career. This depiction of Athens, where Dodd lived and taught at the University of Georgia, was influenced by the urban realism of the Ashcan school as well as the regionalist movements of the 1930s. In this work Dodd has emphasized the harsher, more urban aspects of Athens, rather than its identity as a genteel southern university town. Winter Valley depicts the eastern part of Athens, where a majority of the city’s African American residents lived close to the industrial plants they staffed. Dodd wrote that the painting’s ominous, brooding quality was inspired by his intensive study of El Greco’s View of Toledo (c. 1597, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The somber tone also echoes the mindset of a nation at war. Dodd felt that it was one of his best works. The art historian Gudmund Vigtel characterized Winter Valley as “a major example of Dodd’s intellectual program as a painter, flavored by his emotional involvement with the subject.”
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 97.3 x 128.1 cm (38 5/16 x 50 7/16 in.)
framed: 119.4 x 149.2 x 7 cm (47 x 58 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1971.3.1
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Anonymous gift 1971 to NGA.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1944
Painting in the United States, 1944, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, October-December 1944, no. 50, repro.
Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, March-April 1944, no. 16.
1945
Loan for display with permanent exhibition, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, 1945-1970 [except for periods of loan to special exhibitions].
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1945.
1950
[Lamar Dodd exhibition], travelling exhibition, 1950-1951.
1970
Lamar Dodd: A Retrospective Exhibition, High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, 1970-1971, no. 22, repro.
1972
Extended loan for use by The Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1972-1973.
1973
Extended loan for use by the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., 1973-1976.
1977
Extended loan for use by Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 1977-1979.
1989
Extended loan for use by Secretary Clayton Yeutter, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1989-1991.
1996
A Shared Vision: The Life and Art of Lamar Dodd, Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, Georgia, 1996, no 57.
1998
American Light: Selections from the National Gallery of Art, Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, 1998, no catalogue.
Bibliography
1970
"Dodd: An Athens Portfolio." Athens 2, no. 4 (Fall 1970): 23, repro.
1971
Elsen, Patricia, ed. "College Museum Notes." Art Journal 31, no. 1 (1971): 85, repro.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 143, repro.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 159, repro.
Vigtel, Gudmund. 100 Years of Painting in Georgia. Atlanta, 1992: 40, repro. 41.
Thomas, Frances Taliaferro. A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County. Athens, GA, 1992: 190-191, repro.
Inscriptions
lower left: Lamar Dodd / 1944
Wikidata ID
Q20193603