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Thanksgiving

Black print of several smiling women working in a kitchen with a checkered floor, children and pets among them.

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  • Black print of several smiling women working in a kitchen with a checkered floor, children and pets among them.

Date:

printed 1942, after the painting of 1935

Artist:

Doris Lee (American, 1905-1983)
printed by Associated American Artists (American, founded 1934)

About this artwork

Raised in the small town of Aledo in rural western Illinois, Doris Lee studied art in Italy and France before returning to the United States, eventually settling in Woodstock, New York. She adopted a deliberately naive style for her 1935 painting Thanksgiving, which was initially controversial. Lee’s seemingly untaught aesthetic put her in the vanguard of American modernism. The subsequent lithograph, shown here, was marketed for five dollars to middle-class purchasers; it became, and remains, an iconic image of the American holiday.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Doris Lee

Title

Thanksgiving

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.

Printed 1942

Medium

Lithograph on ivory wove paper

Dimensions

Stone: 22.5 × 30 cm (8 7/8 × 11 13/16 in.); Sheet: 30.5 × 42.8 cm (12 1/16 × 16 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. T. Stanton Armour Endowment

Reference Number

2004.521

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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