Dale Nichols

A major figure in the American Regionalist movement, Dale Nichols produced gentle, nostalgic figurative paintings of rural life in his native Nebraska; he also captured depictions of the various regions he traveled through during his life, from the American Southwest to Guatemala. His primary subject—a red barn nestled in a snowy field surrounded by sparse wintry trees under a vast, piercingly blue sky—recurs throughout his works, as in The Visit (1940–50s) or Yesterday (1972). He also painted a great many landscapes depicting the vast open spaces of the American Midwest, such as Country Charm (1943). Working in a sphere somewhere between Fine Art and commercial illustration, Nichols’s work was often reproduced on tin cans, plates, and playing cards; his best-known work, End of the Hunt (1934), was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In later years, Nichols moved to Guatemala for some time, where he made a living making rubbings and drawings of Mayan sculpture, such as The Maya Wing God (1972).