Anderson Farm 1938

George Ault made this watercolor of Anderson Farm in 1938. You can see the paper shining through in many places. I imagine he worked on it in a single sitting, outside, chasing the light before it moved on. The composition feels so straightforward, yet unsettling. This American Precisionist takes a standard farm scene and injects it with a sense of loneliness, doesn’t he? I wonder what it was like for him to choose these muted, almost mournful colors. Look at the sienna shading that makes the buildings feel monumental but also kind of haunted. The brushstrokes are feathery and light, suggesting a fleeting moment in time. See the flock of black birds in the sky? Are they flying away or coming home? Ault brings this same sense of isolating clarity to all of his paintings. He's a master of depicting stillness, inviting us to contemplate the quiet moments of rural life. It reminds me of Edward Hopper but with a more tender, painterly touch.