''Winter Fields'' is a 1942 painting by the American artist Andrew Wyeth. It depicts a dead, frozen crow in a landscape with fields and distant farm buildings. The painting is hosted at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Wyeth had found the crow near his home in

Chadds Ford Chadds Ford is a census-designated place (CDP) in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester counties, Pennsylvania, United States, comprising the unincorporated area, unincorporated communities of Chadds F ...

, Pennsylvania and brought it to his studio where he painted it in detail. It was painted with tempera on composition board. Because it was made during World War II, the painting has often been interpreted as an allusion to the ongoing battles. It has also been seen as an allusion to battles during the American Revolutionary War that took place in Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania, as Wyeth was known for his interest in local history. In 2011, Ken Johnson of '' The New York Times'' reviewed an exhibition where ''Winter Fields'' was included, and wrote about a recurring theme in 20th-century art of declining spirituality: "''Winter Fields'', a painting that Andrew Wyeth made in 1942 when he was leaning toward Magic Realism, puts it more succinctly. With the exacting touch and the pagan religiosity of a

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

, he pictured a dead crow among dry, brown grasses, a baleful symbol for civilization at war with itself, a silent scream against the violent idiocy of man."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winter Fields 1942 paintings Corvids in art Paintings about death Paintings by Andrew Wyeth Paintings in the Whitney Museum of American Art Farming in art