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Mid-Winter*
Catalogue Entry # 83
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Notes

*Title: In a list of prints hand-written by the artist and dated June 14, 1958, Fiene specifies a print to which he gives the title "Cattle and Crows." This is also the title of a painting (oil on canvas, 56 x 60 in.), which is virtually the same image as "Mid-Winter." Nevertheless this catalgoue accepts "Mid-Winter," the title used by the publisher of the lithograph, Associated American Artists.

Setting: Although the subject matter and time of composition of this print seem more connected to Fiene's lithographs with western American locales such as Dust Storm and Cattle Round-up, its background of stone walls, a gentle hill and a church steeple, very similar to that found in the 1934 print Connecticut Winter, makes New England the more likely setting. This is confirmed by Fiene in a note (dated Oct. 26, 1944) accompanying a gift of an impression of Mid-Winter. The artist inscribed the impression, "To Virginia with best wishes"  In the note he wrote, "I am mailing you a litho, the scene is winter, a view from my house in Southbury, Conn. I hope you will like it."

Detail of Fiene's note explaining the scene depicted in Mid-Winter (courtesy of R. Van Almen)

Fiene's home in Southbury, CT where he lived, while not residing in New York City, from 1933 through the late 1950's

Related Works: A Painting, "Cattle and Crows" (oil on canvas, 56 x 60 in.) is virtually the same image as the lithogaph. A tempera (See below.) may have been a study for the painting and/or lithograph.