MERRITT MAUZEY (1897-1973). Grandpa Snazzy, 1930s. Oil on masonite. 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61.0 cm). Signed lower right...

Description

MERRITT MAUZEY (1897-1973)
Grandpa Snazzy, 1930s
Oil on masonite
30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61.0 cm)
Signed lower right

Merritt Mauzey's painting, Grandpa Snazzy, is an iconic image of the plight of the Dust Bowl and depression-era, dry-land cotton sharecropper. Dirt poor, barefoot, and without mechanized implements, he plows marginal and inhospitable land. The sky and horizon are no longer blue, but tinted brown and orange with hundreds of tons of what was once top soil. During this time, farmers were dealt a double blow, as the worldwide Great Depression ignited a trade war in 1930, resulting in a total collapse of corn, wheat, cotton and soybean prices in America. A year later, the great nine-year drought, called the Dust Bowl, started and completed the destruction of the American farmer.

Rarely does a painting that typifies a particular era: historically, artistically, and stylistically; and also represent the artist's best work, best period, and principal subject matter. Simply put, this is a museum-quality painting, and can be counted as one of Merritt Mauzey's greatest works. It must also be counted among the great Dust Bowl paintings produced in America. Texas had many wonderful regionalist artists, but few could match the sincerity and direct knowledge Merritt Mauzey had of the cotton industry and the poor sharecropping farmer.

This is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to purchase a major regionalist painting of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

Provenance:
Acquired from the artist by the present owner

More information about Mauzey, Merritt. See also: Merritt Thomas Mauzey Artist.

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