Theora Hamblett (American/Mississippi, 1895-1977) , "Mother Goat and Kids", 1971, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, handwritten label with artist and title on backing, 24 in. x 30 in., framed . Provenance: Descended in the family of the artist. Note: Theora Hamblett began her professional career late in life, eschewing the abstract style popular at the time in favor of subjects more personal. After an accident that broke her hip and required surgery in 1954, Hamblett began to paint her dreams and visions. The same year, New York gallery owner and famous collector, Betty Parsons, discovered Hamblett's work and subsequently one of her paintings was included in a 1955 show of new acquisitions at the Museum of Modern Art. Many of Hamblett’s paintings concentrated on her early memories, especially of the chicken farm in Paris, Mississippi where she spent her childhood. In nearly all of her landscape paintings, she included animals or people, with the belief that these additions gave life to the scenes. A charming family of goats surrounded by Hamblett’s iconic trees take center stage in the rare and mature work offered here. Hamblett’s minimalist style is abstract, yet representational, with the highly patterned trees vibrating with tiny leaves, made all the more kinetic by being placed between the field of solid gold surrounding the goats and the bright blue Mississippi sky. Ref.: Wertkin, Gerard, ed. Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003, pp. 243-244. "Theora Hamblett." Greg Thompson Fine Art. www.gregthompsonfineart.com. Accessed Dec. 19, 2020