Picking Cotton
This painting depicts a green field of cotton plants with white blossoms. Three individuals are seen harvesting the cotton. They appear to be wearing skirts and bonnets and have dark skin, although their faces aren’t detailed. The background includes buildings on the left and green trees against a pale blue sky with hints of grey. The painting utilizes loose, visible brushstrokes. The color scheme is warm and natural, featuring shades of green, brown, and muted tones.
Colors in this work
Details
- Artist
- William Gilbert Gaul
- Date
- c. 1890
- Medium
- oil on academy board
- Dimensions
- overall: 33.66 × 46.36 cm (13 1/4 × 18 1/4 in.) framed: 40.64 × 50.8 × 5.08 cm (16 × 20 × 2 in.)
- Department
- CAB
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Palette
-
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- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase through a gift of Josephine Boardman Crane, 1957)
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Work and Workers Both · 99%
Three individuals are shown harvesting cotton in the field, matching the catalog description of agricultural work.
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Rural Life Both · 98%
The image presents an open cultivated field, farmhouse, trees, and a rural horizon; the catalog identifies the setting as a cotton field with background buildings and trees.
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Landscapes Both · 97%
The composition includes a broad field, distant horizon, farmhouse, trees, and sky, with the landscape occupying most of the picture.
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Flora Both · 99%
Cotton plants and numerous white cotton blossoms fill the foreground and middle ground.
Visual Qualities
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Earth Tones Visual · 95%
Greens, browns, ochers, and muted atmospheric tones dominate the field, earth, buildings, and sky.
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Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 90%
Saturated green vegetation and strong yellow and red garments provide vivid accents against the muted sky and earth colors.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The National Gallery of Art identifies the work as oil on academy board.
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Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Both · 98%
Loose, clearly visible brushstrokes are evident across the vegetation, soil, garments, and sky, and are specifically noted in the catalog description.
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Long Distance and Deep Distance Visual · 90%
The field recedes across several spatial zones toward a distant horizon, with the farmhouse and tree line placed in the middle and far distance.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 98%
The catalog dates the work to circa 1890.
Source & rights
William Gilbert Gaul. Picking Cotton. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
High-resolution sources
- IIIF image service ↗ 16,216 × 12,011 · National Gallery Of Art · Available