Jean Prunière
American/ Polish/ French (?), 1901-1944 (?)
Untitled (Weighing Sheep)
Oil on Canvas
In this fine mid-century large-scale American painting we have six well-dressed white men next to a farmhouse out in the countryside weighing a lamb to be sold at market; and there are six sheep total on the canvas. Two men hold up the hand-held livestock scale as they weigh one lamb who is in a sling dangling from it; and the heaviest-set of the group takes note of the weight of the animal. All men are nicely dressed, and the four whose faces we see are older and each wears a moustache; none of the men are dirty as most farm workers would be, and even their pants and foot wear seem clean. On the right side of the painting we have a nicely-painted blue cart in good condition pulled by one horse. A second large farm structure in good condition is painted into the backdrop of the painting on the right-hand side; and beyond that we see a wide green field in good condition and many hills beyond it that probably lead to more distant mountains. In the lower right-hand corner the painting is signed "Jean Prunière" (who might have been a WPA artist working for the Federal Arts Program (1935-1943)--although his name is clearly of French origin while some sources claim he was from Poland. And while most paintings from that era highlight its Zeitgeist, i.e. the destitute character of the Great Depression, in this piece Prunière did not choose to highlight that context steeped in poverty and uncertainty.

Provenance: Estate of Raymond Keith Kissee
95 x 75 inches

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