{"data":{"id":111617,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/111617","is_boosted":true,"title":"Cabin in the Cotton","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCQAFAPUAABIPERcVFxscGx4cHCQmIScoJCksIigrJCgrJSorKistKi0vKjEzKTAxKjAxLDM0LjM1LjU0MDQ1MDU2MSRAWiRBXSZCXChGZS5LZTNNZDNPazZSbzlUbUpHQ0xNREBFSERISUNKTVdVUlBVWFxbWWZjXlFjdImFfG14gHF9hoSKjpCYnbaxpwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAJAAUAAAYqwMtGU6lkOBjKChQyoT4jVYo06LBEAUDpJEhMPI6JYsIoLBAGxuNxIAQBADs=","width":8964,"height":5305,"alt_text":"Painting of a cabin set below a dark blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Behind it is a field of many small white dots. In front, a dark-skinned woman sits and a dark-skinned child plays among roaming chickens and dogs in a fenced-in yard."},"main_reference_number":"1990.417","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1931,"date_end":1937,"date_display":"c. 1931\u201337","date_qualifier_title":"c.","date_qualifier_id":60,"artist_display":"Horace Pippin (American, 1888\u20131946)","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"<p>Constructed of dense, thick layers of paint, <em>Cabin in the Cotton<\/em> exemplifies the tactile and vivid style of selftaught artist Horace Pippin. At a southern homestead, an older woman cares for a young child. Beyond, an expansive field of cotton evokes the hard labor, likely that of family members, required to harvest the crop. Pippin turned to painting as a mode of rehabilitation after injuring his arm while serving in World War I. Born in Pennsylvania, the artist\u2019s interpretation of cotton fields drew upon a visit to South Carolina with his regiment in 1917. Popular culture also may have informed his work: \u201cCabin in the Cotton\u201d was the title of both a song and a film in the 1930s. On view in a shoe repair shop outside Philadelphia in 1937, the composition caught the attention of artists, critics, and gallerists, winning Pippin wide acclaim and furthering his career.<\/p>\n","short_description":"A celebrated African American artist of the mid-20th century, self-taught painter Horace Pippin began painting as therapy, hoping to regain mobility in his right arm, which was injured during WWI. While this work hung in a Philadelphia shoe repair shop, it caught the attention of artists, critics, and gallerists. It is considered an exemplar of the artist's vivid, saturated palette and feeling for intense pattern.","dimensions":"51 \u00d7 85 cm (20 \u00d7 33 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":85,"height":51,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on cotton, mounted on Masonite","inscriptions":"Signed recto, bottom-right, on grass, in yellow paint: \"H. PIPPIN\".","credit_line":"Purchased with funds provided by Thomas F. Pick and Mary P. Hines in memory of their mother Frances W. Pick","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"\u201cPrimitivist Pippin,\u201d <em>Time<\/em> 35, 5 (January 29, 1940), 56.\n\nSelden Rodman, <em>Horace Pippin: A Negro Painter in America<\/em> (Quadrangle Press, 1947), 13, 14, 82, pl. 6.\n\nArthur Miller, \u201cLaughton, Art Lover,\u201d <em>Art Digest<\/em>, 23, 10 (February 15, 1949), p, 9.\n\nSelden Rodman and Carole Cleaver, <em>Horace Pippin: The Artist as a Black American<\/em> (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972), 68, 70, 73, 75. \n\nJudith E. Stein, et al., <em>\"I Tell My Heart\": The Art of Horace Pippin<\/em>, exh. cat. (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in association with Universe Publishing, 1993), 8, 10, 40n, 147\u201348, 161, 187, 195, ill. fig. 155.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, <em>The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth\u2013Century Painting and Sculpture<\/em>, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 84, ill.\n\nKirsten P. Buick, \u201cPortfolio,\u201d <em>Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies<\/em> 24, 2 (1999), 194\u2013195, no. 6.\n\nJulie L. McGee, \"Field, Boll, and Monument: Toward an Iconography of Cotton in African American Art,\" <em>International Review of African American Art<\/em> 19, 1 (2003), 38\u201339, ill. 46.\n\nJudith A. Barter, et al., <em>American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 97.\n\n<em>Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago\/Yale University Press, 2017), 119.\n\nAnne Monahan, <em>Horace Pippin, American Modern<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2020), 38, 43, 53, 70 (ill. detail), 72, 74\u201385, 75 fig. 36 (ill.), 88, 90, 94, 98, 102, 105\u2013107, 112\u2013113, 118, 136, 177, 234n33.","exhibition_history":"West Chester, PA, Art Centre, Art Association and School Board of West Chester, <em>Chester County Art Association Sixth Annual Exhibition<\/em>, May 23\u2013June 6, 1937, cat. 20 (Upper Hallway).\n\nWest Chester, PA, Community Center, Chester County Art Association and West Chester Community Center, <em>Horace Pippin: Paintings and Burnt Wood Panels<\/em>, June 8\u2013July 5, 1937, cat. 2.\n\nNew York, Museum of Modern Art, <em>Masters of Popular Painting<\/em>, Apr. 27\u2013July 24, 1938, cat. 167; Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art; Louisville, KY, Louisville Art Association; Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dec. 21, 1938\u2013Jan. 22, 1939; Kansas City, MO, William Rockland Nelson Gallery of Art; Houston, TX, Houston Museum of Fine Art; Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art; San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Art.\n\nPhiladelphia, Carlen Galleries, <em>Paintings by Horace Pippin<\/em>, Jan. 19\u2013Feb. 18, 1940, cat. 2.\n\nPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, <em>I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin<\/em>, Jan. 13\u2013Apr. 10, 1994; Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 28\u2013July 10, 1994; Cincinnati Art Museum, July 28\u2013Oct. 9, 1994; Washington, DC, National Museum of American Art, Oct. 27\u2013Jan. 22, 1995.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, <em>A Century of Collecting: African American Art in the Art Institute of Chicago<\/em>, Feb. 15\u2013May 18, 2003, no cat.\n\nChadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, <em>Horace Pippin: The Way I See It<\/em>, Apr. 25\u2013July 19, 2015.\n\nAtlanta, High Museum of Art, <em>Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self\u2013Taught Artist in America<\/em>, Aug. 21\u2013Dec. 11, 2021, cat. (ill. fig. 30); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, May 28\u2013Sept. 5, 2022; Westmoreland Museum of Art, PA, Oct. 30, 2022\u2013Feb. 5, 2023 (Atlanta only).\n\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, <em>Edges of Ailey<\/em>, Sept. 25, 2024\u2013Feb. 9, 2025, not in cat.","provenance_text":"Horace Pippin (1888\u20131946), West Chester, PA; sold to Charles Laughton, Hollywood, CA, 1940, until at least 1947. With Ulrike Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, by 1990; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":21,"fiscal_year":1991,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":0,"color":{"h":47,"l":53,"s":3,"percentage":0.00017033260279572578,"population":81},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of the Americas","department_id":"PC-3","artist_id":37451,"artist_title":"Horace Pippin","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[37451],"artist_titles":["Horace Pippin"],"category_ids":["PC-142","PC-830","PC-3"],"category_titles":["African American artists","African Diaspora","Arts of the Americas"],"term_titles":["oil paint (paint)","oil on panel","oil painting","landscapes","Modernism","cotton (textile)","Masonite (TM)","painting (image making)","painting","modern and contemporary art","animals","architecture","birds","clouds","farm life","painting","rural life","trees"],"style_id":"TM-5981","style_title":"Modernism","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-5981"],"style_titles":["Modernism"],"classification_id":"TM-80","classification_title":"oil on panel","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-155"],"classification_ids":["TM-80","TM-9","TM-155"],"classification_titles":["oil on panel","painting","modern and contemporary art"],"subject_id":"TM-8657","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12218","TM-12085","TM-11211","TM-11222","TM-12105","TM-12737","TM-12814","TM-11205"],"subject_ids":["TM-8657","TM-12218","TM-12085","TM-11211","TM-11222","TM-12105","TM-12737","TM-12814","TM-11205"],"subject_titles":["landscapes","animals","architecture","birds","clouds","farm life","painting","rural life","trees"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2578","TM-11760"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2578","TM-11760"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","cotton (textile)","Masonite (TM)"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["African American artists","African Diaspora"],"image_id":"18dd28cc-ae57-b852-cbc4-d184c6f0555d","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["fa5e0458-1aa3-ccf4-7616-b933511fa5b1"],"sound_ids":["fa5e0458-1aa3-ccf4-7616-b933511fa5b1"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Cabin in the Cotton","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1990.417"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Cabin in the Cotton"],"weight":9584,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-08-05T16:33:53-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-25T23:21:42-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:53:07-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}