Maynard Dixon, a notable muralist, illustrator, and landscape artist, worked throughout his life to truly capture the grandeur and majesty of the American West. After exploring Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada, his subjects often took the form of desert landscapes and Native American scenes. Over the years, Maynard Dixon’s paintings have become iconic and representative of the raw and untouched American West. In his painting, Lonesome Journey, Maynard Dixon conveys a sense of courage in the face of the unknown through lighting and shadows, simple artistic style, and his own personal experience.
Maynard Dixon was born on a ranch near Fresno, California on January 24th 1875. As a child he suffered from asthma and consequently took an early interest in non-physical activities like drawing and writing. By age 16, Dixon already wanted to make a career illustrating the “Old West.” Two years later, with the encouragement of Frederic Remington, Constance Dixon, Maynard’s mother, moved the family to Alameda, California, where Maynard studied art classically at the California School of Design. After three months, Dixon found the traditional European curriculum to be restrictive and soon left to learn from nature herself. After spending a short time illustrating for a local newspaper, Maynard Dixon left California to visit the “true” American West in Arizona and New Mexico. Over the next several years Dixon made many trips to the West, where, on one occasion, he was introduced to his second wife, Dorothea Lange. Dixon and Lange spent time in a variety of places, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah—specifically Zion National Park, where he painted over 40 canvases. In 1935, Lange and Dixon divorced after Lange had been called back to San Francisco. Two years later, Dixon married Edith Hamlin, a fellow artist, who loved and supported his work through the last years of his life. At the end of his life, Dixon and Hamlin split their time between Utah and Arizona until Maynard Dixon died in 1946 in Tucson, Arizona (Important Timeline in Maynard Dixon’s Life). According to his wishes, Maynard Dixon’s ashes were placed in a Hopi bowl and buried atop a bluff above Mount Carmel, Utah, a favorite place of Dixon throughout his life (Maynard Dixon Biography).
Maynard Dixon’s artistic style varied considerably over the course of his life. His early paintings are reminiscent of an Impressionist style while his later paintings contain elements of Social Realism and Regionalism (Maynard Dixon). Dixon’s painting, Lonesome Journey (1946), is unique in that it depicts both characteristics of Regionalism and Social Realism. Lonesome Journey portrays a man riding a small horse drawn cart through the desolate red desert of the southwest. Like many of Dixon’s other Regionalist paintings, this painting’s emphasis on country western life rather than urban life is typical of the movement. In addition, Lonesome Journey employs distilled simplistic shapes, another characteristic of Regionalism’s response to Modernism’s abstraction. Lonesome Journey also contains some elements of Social Realism in that it depicts some social issues of the West, such as loneliness and courage—something that often went unconsidered due to pressing urban social issues (Regionalism).
Although at first glance Lonesome Journey is a painting about a lonely man, further study reveals a sense of courage and bravery in the face of the unknown. One way that Maynard Dixon expresses these emotions is through his use of lighting and shadows. The mild, soft oranges used to light the scene sets this painting near sunset. This evening lighting performs two tasks for the viewer. First, it accents the long journey that the traveler has been on throughout the course of the day. It makes the viewer think of the many miles the man has journeyed alone. This emphasizes the theme of loneliness in the painting. Second, it allows the viewer to think of the many possibilities of the next day. Although one day is ending, another is about to begin, bringing with it new possibilities and opportunities as this man continues courageously on his quest. In addition to the lighting, the shadows on the cliffs serve to accent the middle third of the painting—the third where the man is traveling. This draws our eyes to the traveler and our attention away from the scenery.
Another way that Maynard Dixon conveys his message of lonely courage is through the simplification of geometrical shapes and specific details. In his painting Lonesome Journey, Dixon paints the red cliffs and vegetation in very simple forms, leaving out details like individual sagebrush leaves and deep crevasses that often exist in rocks of that type. He paints simple geometric shapes and almost completely unadorned scenery. In addition, Dixon paints the desert in an almost impressionist style, with loose brush strokes and undefined lines. All of these techniques shift the emphasis of the painting from the otherwise distracting natural beauty of the desert to a lone man’s journey. Dixon’s choice of simple scenery allows the viewer of the painting to really contemplate the past and the future of the traveler.
Finally, Maynard Dixon’s own personal experiences and position in life seriously affected the overall theme of Lonesome Journey. First, Lonesome Journey was painted in 1946, during the last year of Maynard Dixon’s life. Like the lonely traveler, Dixon himself was facing the ending of one stage of his existence and the beginning of another. He painted a subject that reflected his own courageous sojourn into unknown and unsure territory. In addition, through Dixon’s travels he was fully aware of the plight of the western man—one that was often changing and unsure. This painting, like many of his later paintings, brings to light issues of the westerner, like many social realists brought to light the issues of city life.
Initially, I did not think that this painting was anything out of the ordinary. I looked at it, saw a man traveling, and moved on to a painting of the Rocky Mountains nearby. However, as I looked for beauty in the alpine scenery that I personally love, my eyes were drawn back to the simple scene of Lonesome Journey and I began to see a deeper level of meaning to it. I came to love this painting because I realized that it describes universal themes. Everyone has times when they feel like they must press on—perhaps alone—to accomplish a goal or arrive at their destination and this Lonesome Journey with that universal truth. For me, having seen the painting in a museum gave me more of a chance to think about it and evaluate its meaning and its cultural impact at a higher level than if I were looking at it in a book.
Maynard Dixon came to be a renowned painter and illustrator throughout his life. He sought to represent the “true” west and gave us a piece of a different kind of lifestyle. Lonesome Journey, a representative piece of his regionalist painting, expresses a distinct sense of lonely courage through lighting, simple shapes, and Dixon’s own personal experiences.
Works Cited
Important Timelines in Maynard Dixon’s Life. Sublette, J. Mark. October 25, 2010.
< http://www.maynarddixon.org/timeline.php>
Maynard Dixon. October 6, 2010. Wikipedia. October 25, 2010.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Dixon>
Maynard Dixon Biography. Sublette, J. Mark. October 25, 2010.
< http://www.maynarddixon.org/bio.php>
Regionalism. October 6, 2010. Wikipedia. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalism_(art)>
