Cows — Horses — Sheep — Chickens — Dogs — Cats — Deer

Margit’s landscape isn’t just trees. Animals inhabit Margit’s world too. It seems whitetail deer is the only wild animal to make Margit’s paintings. But of domesticated animals there are…

• Cows — Cows were the everyday creatures of farm-life.
• Horses — Horses were the heavy-lifters in Margit’s formative years. She shows them plowing fields, gathering hay, pulling sleighs, and so on… All of which Margit had intimate experience with. Beast of labor. Even when they aren’t working, Margit shows them behind a fence.
• Sheep — Sheep aren’t common in the SE Minnesota area. Margit uses them in religious-themed paintings.
• Chickens —
• Dogs — For as many farms that Margit captured, it’s not surprising that one painting description mentions a dog.
• Cats — No, there’s no record of any cats in Margit’s paintings, even though Margit and Palmer enjoyed their beloved white Angora “Doo-doo” during most of her painting career. This is long before cute cat videos on the internet. Most of Margit’s animals are large and viewed from some distance. If she had even considered to depict a cat, maybe its size would have been prohibitive to Margit.
• Pigs = None, except…

Whether they’re wild or domesticated, Margit’s animals are almost part of the landscape. Usually they’re seen at a distance. Margit wasn’t happy with his As with the faces of people, the appearance of animals was difficult to master to Margit’s satisfaction. They were never ready for their closeup.

What about pigs? Maybe pigs don’t make much of an appearance because they’re rarely out in a scenic field.