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Hilltop Farm, Lodi, Wisconsin depicts a rural scene in Wisconsin. The viewpoint is from a rutted dirt road, looking at the backs of several slightly dilapidated structures. These have been built into the side of a hill, facing onto a lower, unseen road, so that the buildings are partially obscured. Between them, just off-center to the left, is an old tree, dead and leafless, pocked with holes pecked by birds or chiseled out by squirrels. It was planted near the barn door long ago. The sky is overcast, the leaden blue gray brightened only by a few large cumulus clouds. The weather might be clearing, as there are two figures at work. In the yard of the barn in the right foreground, an older woman with white hair or a kerchief and wearing a heavy overcoat over a pale pink housedress is raking. She is shown in the act of pulling the rake back towards her, having extended her reach by raising her arms and extending it forward. The thrust of her hip is arresting and although her dress, action, and setting are far from feminine, she emerges as a point of interest. There is an older man in the middle distance seen, waist-up, from the back. He is bald, and dressed in a work shirt with crossed straps of suspenders to hold up workpants. He may or may not be the church sexton, and may or may not be the husband of the woman working in her yard.
Architecturally, the white clapboard church is in better shape than its secular neighbor. Its style is eclectic, featuring coupled Gothic-arch windows in a Norman-style bell tower. The tower is of oxidized copper, and the roof is a rusty red-brown in color. The barns, with double doors that swing open, are quite run-down. There is evidence of patching on the roof, and of laundry in the overturned wash bucket leaning against the dead tree and another one sitting on a large stump behind it. The roof of the two-story barn is a bright viridian green that is also used on the head of a mallard duck running around in the yard with its mate, some chickens, and a rooster. Making a complementary color scheme, the green roof contrasts with the standing wooden barrels painted in burnt sienna. The small single story barn may be for fowl, as roosters and hens are running in the yard and a pigeon is perched on a roof gable. The roof has been patched many times to the effect that it resembles a multicolored paint test strip.
Bohrod’s style reflects his teacher John Sloan’s emphasis on drawing with paint. A fairly small brush has been employed to lay paint on the panel in flickering strokes—the brush overloaded at times so that the strokes are somewhat awkward. The artist has modified much of his color choice by tinting the hues with white, but his general muted palette also includes strokes of yellow-gold, viridian green, and cerulean blue. A critic described his technique: “His oil work, almost without exception, is done on panels. Preferring to dictate his own surface rather than to accept the determined texture of canvas, he uses the latter only when the size of the work would make a panel too heavy for practical purposes. As a rule he works on a fairly small scale. He sizes his panels, painting directly with no underpainting, and uses the ‘fat on lean’ method common to many of John Sloan’s works. The result is a comparatively rich texture and smooth surface, seldom highly glazed.” [3]
It is tempting to look for symbolic meaning in the depiction of a public sacred space and a private farm/barn—both perhaps are storage buildings, one for spiritual treasure and the other for earthly belongings. But such symbolism may have been far from the artist’s mind. Bohrod was probably aware of the long tradition of farmyard painting dating to seventeenth-century Holland; he explained his penchant for this kind of subject matter. “These were simply some of the unlovely subjects that interested me. I have always felt that intrinsic beauty in a subject is a handicap when the artist selects a motif for his work. What can an artist really say about a beautiful sunset that would improve on nature; about a brand new, shining automobile; about a newly completed chunk of modern architecture? It is probably incorrect to say that no artist under any set of circumstances can use these motifs well, but it is fair to say that, unlike those things affectionately or mercilessly touched by time, the brisk, the new, and the beautiful are not very likely subjects for the artist.” [4]
Hilltop Farm, Lodi, Wisconsin was purchased by Charles Babcock, Sr., directly from ACA (American Contemporary Artist) Galleries, a venerable New York institution founded in 1932 and known for its representation of social realist artists.
Notes:
[1] Bohrod to Mrs. A. R. Keppel, wife of the director, Piedmont University Center at Reynolda House, February 11, 1966, Archives of Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
[2] Helen Trieglaff, “Contemporary American Artists: Aaron Bohrod,” Parnassus, 12, no. 4 (April 1940), 16.
[3] Trieglaff, “Contemporary American Artists,” 18.
[4] Bohrod, A Decade of Still Life (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), 11.
ProvenanceBefore 1966
Mr. Charles H. Babcock, Sr. (1899-1967), Winston-Salem, NC
After 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Charles H. Babcock.
Exhibition History2016
Grant Wood and the American Farm
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (9/9/2016 - 12/31/2016)
2023
Coexistence: Nature vs. Nurture
Reynolda House Museum of Amerian Art (4/7/2023 - 9/24/2023)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Hilltop Farm, Lodi, Wisconsin
Artist
Aaron Bohrod
(1907 - 1992)
Datecirca 1950
Mediumoil on gessoed panel
DimensionsFrame: 25 7/8 x 30 in. (65.7 x 76.2 cm)
Canvas (canvas/panel): 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
SignedAaron Bohrod
Credit LineGift of Charles H. Babcock, Sr.
Copyright© 2021 Estate of Aaron Bohrod / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Object number1966.2.8
DescriptionOf this painting, Bohrod wrote, “It was sketched, I believe, not too long after I came to the University here (in 1948) and it was probably painted around 1950–52. The town, Lodi, is located about 40 miles north of Madison.” [1] As an American Scene painter, Bohrod sought inspiration for his art from his travels. Newly appointed as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he made a point of driving all over his new state, seeking the kind of inspiration for rural scenes that he had found living in Chicago. A contemporary critic wrote that “Bohrod goes directly to those parts of the city which speak most loudly of shabbiness and dinginess, finding in them a realism which is as unmistakable in its validity for him as the farm or countryside is for John Steuart Curry or Grant Wood. But his remains a realism tempered by an imaginative use of color and a vision of what lies behind drab exteriors.” [2]Hilltop Farm, Lodi, Wisconsin depicts a rural scene in Wisconsin. The viewpoint is from a rutted dirt road, looking at the backs of several slightly dilapidated structures. These have been built into the side of a hill, facing onto a lower, unseen road, so that the buildings are partially obscured. Between them, just off-center to the left, is an old tree, dead and leafless, pocked with holes pecked by birds or chiseled out by squirrels. It was planted near the barn door long ago. The sky is overcast, the leaden blue gray brightened only by a few large cumulus clouds. The weather might be clearing, as there are two figures at work. In the yard of the barn in the right foreground, an older woman with white hair or a kerchief and wearing a heavy overcoat over a pale pink housedress is raking. She is shown in the act of pulling the rake back towards her, having extended her reach by raising her arms and extending it forward. The thrust of her hip is arresting and although her dress, action, and setting are far from feminine, she emerges as a point of interest. There is an older man in the middle distance seen, waist-up, from the back. He is bald, and dressed in a work shirt with crossed straps of suspenders to hold up workpants. He may or may not be the church sexton, and may or may not be the husband of the woman working in her yard.
Architecturally, the white clapboard church is in better shape than its secular neighbor. Its style is eclectic, featuring coupled Gothic-arch windows in a Norman-style bell tower. The tower is of oxidized copper, and the roof is a rusty red-brown in color. The barns, with double doors that swing open, are quite run-down. There is evidence of patching on the roof, and of laundry in the overturned wash bucket leaning against the dead tree and another one sitting on a large stump behind it. The roof of the two-story barn is a bright viridian green that is also used on the head of a mallard duck running around in the yard with its mate, some chickens, and a rooster. Making a complementary color scheme, the green roof contrasts with the standing wooden barrels painted in burnt sienna. The small single story barn may be for fowl, as roosters and hens are running in the yard and a pigeon is perched on a roof gable. The roof has been patched many times to the effect that it resembles a multicolored paint test strip.
Bohrod’s style reflects his teacher John Sloan’s emphasis on drawing with paint. A fairly small brush has been employed to lay paint on the panel in flickering strokes—the brush overloaded at times so that the strokes are somewhat awkward. The artist has modified much of his color choice by tinting the hues with white, but his general muted palette also includes strokes of yellow-gold, viridian green, and cerulean blue. A critic described his technique: “His oil work, almost without exception, is done on panels. Preferring to dictate his own surface rather than to accept the determined texture of canvas, he uses the latter only when the size of the work would make a panel too heavy for practical purposes. As a rule he works on a fairly small scale. He sizes his panels, painting directly with no underpainting, and uses the ‘fat on lean’ method common to many of John Sloan’s works. The result is a comparatively rich texture and smooth surface, seldom highly glazed.” [3]
It is tempting to look for symbolic meaning in the depiction of a public sacred space and a private farm/barn—both perhaps are storage buildings, one for spiritual treasure and the other for earthly belongings. But such symbolism may have been far from the artist’s mind. Bohrod was probably aware of the long tradition of farmyard painting dating to seventeenth-century Holland; he explained his penchant for this kind of subject matter. “These were simply some of the unlovely subjects that interested me. I have always felt that intrinsic beauty in a subject is a handicap when the artist selects a motif for his work. What can an artist really say about a beautiful sunset that would improve on nature; about a brand new, shining automobile; about a newly completed chunk of modern architecture? It is probably incorrect to say that no artist under any set of circumstances can use these motifs well, but it is fair to say that, unlike those things affectionately or mercilessly touched by time, the brisk, the new, and the beautiful are not very likely subjects for the artist.” [4]
Hilltop Farm, Lodi, Wisconsin was purchased by Charles Babcock, Sr., directly from ACA (American Contemporary Artist) Galleries, a venerable New York institution founded in 1932 and known for its representation of social realist artists.
Notes:
[1] Bohrod to Mrs. A. R. Keppel, wife of the director, Piedmont University Center at Reynolda House, February 11, 1966, Archives of Reynolda House Museum of American Art.
[2] Helen Trieglaff, “Contemporary American Artists: Aaron Bohrod,” Parnassus, 12, no. 4 (April 1940), 16.
[3] Trieglaff, “Contemporary American Artists,” 18.
[4] Bohrod, A Decade of Still Life (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), 11.
ProvenanceBefore 1966
Mr. Charles H. Babcock, Sr. (1899-1967), Winston-Salem, NC
After 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Charles H. Babcock.
Exhibition History2016
Grant Wood and the American Farm
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (9/9/2016 - 12/31/2016)
2023
Coexistence: Nature vs. Nurture
Reynolda House Museum of Amerian Art (4/7/2023 - 9/24/2023)
Published References
Status
Not on viewCollections