Adolf Dehn
American, 1895 - 1968Wheat Fields, 1940
Not on view
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions14 × 21 in. (35.6 × 53.3 cm)
Courtesy of the Isabel Foundation, Inlander Collection, L2003.66
This painting portrays wheat farms in summer near the town of Waterville in southern Minnesota.
Adolf Dehn was born in Waterville, Minnesota, in l895. He studied art at the Minneapolis School of Art between l9l4 and l9l7. He then moved to New York to continue his studies at the Art Students League. In New York, Dehn threw himself into liberal politics. Declaring himself a conscientious objector, he was forced to spend the last year of World War I in a camp for pacifists in South Carolina. Returning to New York, he completed his studies. His most important teachers at the Art Students League were Boardman Robinson and Kenneth Hayes Miller. It was Robinson who first introduced him to lithography. In the early l920s Dehn moved to Europe where he was employed by The Dial magazine to document continental life and culture. Once abroad, he began producing a steady stream of satirical lithographs that he sold in Europe and New York.
In l929 Dehn returned to the United States, and began exhibiting his prints to considerable critical acclaim. In l937, Dehn turned another important corner in his career when he began to paint in watercolor. During his summer visits to Minnesota, he created a large body of watercolors depicting the lakes and farms of his home state. His American Scene landscapes are typically naturalistic in style. Well known for both his prints and his watercolors, Dehn was elected to the National Academy of Design in l96l.
