Spring on the Hillside

Here Wanda Gág veered from her determinedly original style into regionalism. Popularized in the 1930s, regionalism tended to idealize rural America, presenting it as a place of stability, innocence, and order. People suffering under the Great Depression (1929–39) were enchanted. In Gág’s abstracted landscape, fields and trees shift between recognizable objects and stylized patterns. The road around the farmhouse could be read as a moat, reinforcing the regionalist concept of country life as protected and safe. In the study drawing, Gág dusted the scene with snow and elevated our viewpoint. The lithograph puts us closer to the landscape, increasing our sense of belonging and highlighting the changes and choices an artist makes from one version to the next.