Cabin in the Cotton

Arts of the Americas

c. 1931–37

Horace Pippin (American, 1888–1946)

Constructed of dense, thick layers of paint, Cabin in the Cotton exemplifies the tactile and vivid style of selftaught artist Horace Pippin. At a southern homestead, an older woman cares for a young child. Beyond, an expansive field of cotton evokes the hard labor, likely that of family members, required to harvest the crop. Pippin turned to painting as a mode of rehabilitation after injuring his arm while serving in World War I. Born in Pennsylvania, the artist’s interpretation of cotton fields drew upon a visit to South Carolina with his regiment in 1917. Popular culture also may have informed his work: “Cabin in the Cotton” was the title of both a song and a film in the 1930s. On view in a shoe repair shop outside Philadelphia in 1937, the composition caught the attention of artists, critics, and gallerists, winning Pippin wide acclaim and furthering his career.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Horace Pippin
Title: Cabin in the Cotton
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1931–1937
Medium: Oil on cotton, mounted on Masonite
Inscriptions: Signed recto, bottom-right, on grass, in yellow pigment: "H. PIPPIN".
Dimensions: 51 × 85 cm (20 × 33 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Thomas F. Pick and Mary P. Hines in memory of their mother Frances W. Pick
Reference Number: 1990.417
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/111617/manifest.json

“Primitivist Pippin,” Time 35, 5 (January 29, 1940), 56.
Selden Rodman, Horace Pippin: A Negro Painter in America (Quadrangle Press, 1947), 13, 14, 82, pl. 6.
Arthur Miller, “Laughton, Art Lover,” Art Digest, 23, 10 (February 15, 1949), p, 9.
Selden Rodman and Carole Cleaver, Horace Pippin: The Artist as a Black American (Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972), 68, 70, 73, 75.
Judith E. Stein, et al., “I Tell My Heart”: The Art of Horace Pippin, exh. cat. (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in association with Universe Publishing, 1993), 8, 10, 40n, 147–48, 161, 187, 195, ill. fig. 155.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture, selected by James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 84, ill.
Kirsten P. Buick, “Portfolio,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), 194–195, no. 6.
Julie L. McGee, “Field, Boll, and Monument: Toward an Iconography of Cotton in African American Art,” International Review of African American Art 19, 1 (2003), 38–39, ill. 46.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 97.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017), 119.
Anne Monahan, Horace Pippin, American Modern (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020), 38, 43, 53, 70 (ill. detail), 72, 74–85, 75 fig. 36 (ill.), 88, 90, 94, 98, 102, 105–107, 112–113, 118, 136, 177, 234n33.

West Chester, PA, Art Centre, Art Association and School Board of West Chester, Chester County Art Association Sixth Annual Exhibition, May 23–June 6, 1937, cat. 20 (Upper Hallway).
West Chester, PA, Community Center, Chester County Art Association and West Chester Community Center, Horace Pippin: Paintings and Burnt Wood Panels, June 8–July 5, 1937, cat. 2.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Masters of Popular Painting, Apr. 27–July 24, 1938, cat. 167; Northampton, MA, Smith College Museum of Art; Louisville, KY, Louisville Art Association; Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dec. 21, 1938–Jan. 22, 1939; Kansas City, MO, William Rockland Nelson Gallery of Art; Houston, TX, Houston Museum of Fine Art; Los Angeles, CA, Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art; San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Art.
Philadelphia, Carlen Galleries, Paintings by Horace Pippin, Jan. 19–Feb. 18, 1940, cat. 2.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin, Jan. 13–Apr. 10, 1994; Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 28–July 10, 1994; Cincinnati Art Museum, July 28–Oct. 9, 1994; Washington, DC, National Museum of American Art, Oct. 27–Jan. 22, 1995.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Collecting: African American Art in the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 15–May 18, 2003, no cat.
Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, Horace Pippin: The Way I See It, Apr. 25–July 19, 2015.
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self–Taught Artist in America, Aug. 21–Dec. 11, 2021, cat. (ill. fig. 30); Chadds Ford, PA, Brandywine River Museum of Art, May 28–Sept. 5, 2022; Westmoreland Museum of Art, PA, Oct. 30, 2022–Feb. 5, 2023 (Atlanta only).

Horace Pippin (1888–1946), West Chester, PA; sold to Charles Laughton, Hollywood, CA, 1940, until at least 1947. With Ulrike Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles, by 1990; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.