Cranberry Pickers, Nantucket

Many of Johnson’s pictures focus on communal activities, such as rural Americans engaging in traditional forms of agricultural production. Cranberry Pickers, Nantucket is one of the final studies for a large painting on the cranberry harvest that the artist completed in 1880 (Timken Museum of Art, San Diego). At the Camp—Spinning Yarns and Whittling is a study for an unfinished project about making maple syrup in Johnson’s home state of Maine.

Johnson used Cranberry Pickers to develop his ideas for the larger composition, scattering groups of figures throughout the canvas. Punctuating the sweeping panorama is a statuesque female figure, seen in profile. The prominence of women in this painting is a mournful reminder of a generation of American men lost in the Civil War. However, the artist’s inclusion of numerous children signifies renewal.