The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Festus Yayple and his Oxen

Festus Yayple and his Oxen

1946
(American, 1891–1948)
Framed: 76.2 x 105.4 x 6.4 cm (30 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 61.6 x 91.4 cm (24 1/4 x 36 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The museum purchased this painting directly from Ault's widow just eight months after the artist died.

Description

Cleveland-born George Ault spent his final years in rural Woodstock, New York, where he befriended local laborers such as ox-trader Festus Yayple. As typical of the artist’s work, this canvas infuses an aura of loneliness and beauty into the everyday world. The austere calm of the painting's composition contrasts with Ault's personal life. During this time he lived in poverty, with failing eyesight, alcoholism, and ill health.
  • Mrs. George C. Ault, Woodstock, New York.
  • Harnsberger, R. Scott. Ten Precisionist Artists: Annotated Bibliographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. Reproduced: p. 45, no. 172
    Nemerov, Alexander. To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum; New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Reproduced: p. 112, cat. 67
    Hemingway, Andrew. The Mysticism of Money: Precisionist Painting and Machine Age America. Pittsburgh: Periscope, 2013. Mentioned: p. 181; Reproduced: p. 180
  • To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America. Smithsonian American Art Museum (organizer) (March 11-September 5, 2011); The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (October 15, 2011-January 8, 2012); Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA (February 18-April 16, 2012).
    Smithsonian American Art Museium (3/11/2011 - 9/5/2011), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (10/15/2011 - 1/8/2012), and Georgia Museum of Art (2/18/2012 - 4/16/2012): "To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America", ex. cat. no. 67, p. 112, det. p. 134.
    "Painting in the United States, 1946," Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, October 10--December 8, 1946.
  • {{cite web|title=Festus Yayple and his Oxen|url=false|author=George Ault|year=1946|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.1775