Description
Roadside
Maynard Dixon, 1938
As can be seen, a homeless man making his way across the desert prepares to lie down for the night at the side of a road. His meager possessions sit in a bundle beside a small fire. The beauty of the night somewhat relieves the sense of loneliness and destitution. The brilliant moon lights the desert landscape and lines the clouds with bands of silver. The campfire is beautifully painted, glowing against the cool, dark colors of the night.
Dixon and his wife drove toward their home in San Francisco after several months in New Mexico. It shocked them to see the many ragged men wandering the highways looking for work. The image of these hopeless men stayed with Dixon and provided subjects for paintings like this one over the next few years. (People in a Hard Land: Iconic Images of Life in the American West – April 6, 2012 – April 13, 2013)
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What’s Going On?
The edge of a road in the foreground gives way to a dry grass verge on which a solitary male figure stands with his back to the road. The figure wears a hat. Little discernible detail of his clothing is available as he is like a dark shadow. To the figures left is a small campfire and to the left of the campfire is a bed role and pack. To the figures right is a line of sagebrush. The horizon line in the distant is flat with the exception of the far right where a mountain emerges. The darkened sky has two trails of wispy clouds.
More About Dixon
Maynard Dixon was an important 20th-century American painter. He often depicted images of the American West.
Originally from California, Dixon painted subjects in both Arizona and New Mexico. He eventually settled in Southern Utah. There he developed his signature style of unique compositions. These often featured low horizons and simplified, yet imposing clouds and rock formations in bold colors.
Dixon also focused on preserving the image of Native American peoples whom he believed were disappearing from the American West. While married to the famous photographer Dorothea Lange, Dixon also focused on social realist subjects. These depicted people struggling to make a living during the Great Depression.
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