Fencerows and farmhouses

Do barbed-wire fences make good neighbors?

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Margit liked to include split-rail or wooden fences in her winter scenes (see Snowy fences). Snow on a wooden fence is undeniably picturesque. But barbed-wire fences are the norm in SE Minnesota. Accordingly, it’s much more common to see barbed-wire fencing stretch across a Margit landscape.

  • ID: 67-14 “winter pink sky”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig price: $5 / Initial owner: M Anderson

    As indicated by the title, Margit is playing with colors. Her skies are rarely all blue. But pink clouds are still something she’s not adept at.

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  • ID: 68-03 “winter house fence”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig price: $5 / Initial owner: N&N Jacobson

    Notice the fence posts in each of these paintings. How boring would it be if they were all perfectly straight up. There’s always one that tilts more than the others. It’s like she’s saying, “there’s one in every crowd.”

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  • ID: 69-46 “abandoned farm home”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig price: $10 / Initial owner: R. Highum

    In this and the next painting, Margit focused on the farm home—at least in her naming. How do you convey that a place has been abandoned without showing uncut grass or, in closeup, broken windows? Sometimes Margit has the building lean a bit. Here the desolate landscape suggests the whole countryside has been abandoned.

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  • ID: 69-48 “Abandoned farm home”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig price: $10 / Initial owner: R McLean

    Done at the same time as the previous painting, here Margit straightens the fence a little, plants a line of decorative trees alongside the house, and shows the barn better. What better way to show a place is abandoned than to show that people at one time cared for the place?

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  • ID: 72-08 “roadside farm winter”
  • Details: 18″ x 24″ / Orig price: $20 / Initial owner: R Jore

    Here the house is convincingly modern (for the early 1970s). And the farm buildings are more detailed (Margit actually includes a silo–a rarity). Did she base this painting on an actual farmstead?

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  • ID: 72-09 “abandoned farm winter”
  • Details: 16″ x 20″ / Orig Price: $15 / Initial owner: A Buol

    After painting what appears to be a working farm (see 72-08, above), Margit returns to an abandoned one. This barren farm scene is like a few she sold a couple years before, except the hill in the distance seems to be prospering.

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  • TBD

    If you have information on this painting, please let us know. 🙂

    Here the sun is about as bright as Margit makes it in a winter scene. The small tree on the left casts a shadow because of the off-stage sun.

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  • ID: X-6 “?”

    Sorry, we don’t have a better picture of this painting. In capturing the snapshot as digital, the painting has been “squished”. The original doesn’t appear to be as vertical (portrait orientation) as it looks here.

    Here, the house and outbuildings are huddled together as if trying to stay warm, the snow on the tree(s) looks like a mix between hoarfrost and white leaves, and the sky appears uncharacteristically gray. But at least the fence gate has been pulled aside so we can drive right in.