Maynard Dixon: The Lonesome Journey

Maynard Dixon lived during an interesting time in America’s history. Born ten years after the Civil War ended, he saw the country’s identity shifting from rural to urban. He lived through both World Wars and the Great Depression always feeling a discontentment with the corruption and dishonesty of city life. In the art world, modernist views and abstract representations were gaining popularity, and Maynard felt a pull from both the realistic honesty of past traditions and the new interesting styles of the present. This personal conflict was shown in a letter to Millard Sheets in 1949 when he wrote, "Long ago—about 1915, when 'modern art' first 'hit the USA'—I had to make a hard decision.   Should I go along with the 'new movement' [Modernism] adopt a novel and fashionable point of view, get my ideas 'imported'—or should I look at my world with more candid eyes, be plainly honest with myself and so achieve something perhaps not startling but at least sincere" (“Desert”, 251). Evidently from his work, he incorporated both realist and modern qualities, though he certainly wanted to portray the West honestly. Dixon’s “Lonesome Journey” shows an American nostalgic reaction to modern ideas through subject matter and its interesting mix of modern and realist compositional elements.

    Unlike urban modern paintings at the time, the subject matter of “Lonesome Journey” is focused on the grandeur of the American West. The entire canvas is filled with red rock, sand, and sage brush. Nature is the powerful and awe-inspiring subject of the painting, not sky-scrapers, man’s creations, or urban social problems. This painting could not be more removed from the happenings within the nearest city. Even though it was painted in 1946, a time when cars and even airplanes were common, the man is in a horse-drawn buggy completely dwarfed by the red-orange cliffs and dark contrasting shadows. As Donald Hagerty wrote, “From experience, Dixon knew the frontier had faded and that rapid urbanization and industrial progress offered distressing implications for the future. But…his paintings stand for the radiance of the West’s natural world, the dignity of creation, and the elemental infinite things” (“Art”, 11). Dixon could have been more concerned with representing the modern progression of his time, but he instead chose in this painting, as in so many of his other pieces, to focus on nature.

    The subject matter also shows an American nostalgic longing to connect with the land. Though the viewer is kept from seeing the greater stretch of the landscape, the man seems to be completely alone in this desert wilderness. No other person is in view, and there seems to be no other movement by person, animal, or wind. This man is able to observe his natural surroundings in silence. Even the carriage allows him to see a great deal of the land in a very personal way. In contrast, a car or train would create physical boundaries between the passenger and the outside. The fast speed would also cause the nature-observer to miss the landscape’s simple details and formations, but a carriage travels on the land at a slower speed. Also, by seeing the man juxtaposed with the canyon wall, we are reminded of man’s feebleness compared to nature’s timeless power. With this reminder, we see ourselves in the painting. Next to those rocks, we look that small. The painting seems to promise to us a desired silence found in nature, an ability to forget about the cares of the modern world and again return to something more real. After moving away from a rural culture, the appeal to Americans of going back to the Old Frontier is captured in “Lonesome Journey.”

    The compositional elements of the painting show a mixture of modern and realist influences. Modernism and abstract art were developing within the cities during this time, and Dixon incorporated some of these qualities in his own style. A few modern qualities in “Lonesome Journey” can be seen in the over-simplification of the cliff walls. The details of the cliff face on the left half of the painting are sparse. One could count the number of dark lines painted. The shadows of these lines are also quite simple. The perfectly dark shades seem to be the result of a very dramatic sun. The somewhat geometric blocks of color also border on abstract. The shadows on both the left and the right are rather angular, the cliff face is a massive block of fiery orange, and the sage brush look more like dots of color rather than actual plants. Especially in contrast to earlier realist paintings, this painting looks much more abstract. 

However, though there are these modern qualities within the painting, the realistic elements are also important and help create that nostalgic feeling. The viewer is easily able to recognize the red and purple blocks as cliffs and cliff shadows in a desert scene. Though the person and horse look somewhat cartoonish, they are real enough for us to understand what the figures actually are. The lines of the cliffs do not look contorted or twisted. They look like they follow the natural undulations of weathered rock. The colors are bright and vibrant, but rocks with similar colors are found in areas like Southern Utah. The sage brush blues and greens also look natural. The lighting is a bit dramatic, but we know where the sun is actually located. The lighting is not unnatural, and the shadows seem to be natural consequences to the afternoon light coming from the upper-left side of the painting. Dixon captures the sandstone texture of the cliff face with visible brushstrokes in lighter yellow colors. It looks rough but not jagged. In short, the painting has abstract qualities, but the subject does not look abstract. “Lonesome Journey” portrays a more simplified version of an actual American desert landscape, which allows the American viewer to identify with the recognizable scene. Because the painting looks like a part of the American West, we are able to sympathize with the man in the buggy. We understand what it feels like to be enclosed within those red walls.  

In conclusion, “Lonesome Journey” is a great example of how Dixon’s subject matter and mixture of modern and realist qualities create a sense of nostalgia within the American viewer. Though our culture has grown more and more urban, there still remains a longing to return back to a simpler and truer way of living by connecting with the land. “Lonesome Journey” shows a single man’s personal moment in time as he continues towards an unknown shadowy future. Though Dixon was not sure about America’s future, he certainly captured an important part of America’s past, the West.  According to Hagerty, “Maynard Dixon was the American West.  He was sort of the embodiment of what we think about, all the good things about the American West, the great landscapes, the far horizon, the steady hand on the helm so to speak.  I think that was Maynard Dixon” (website). Instead of following the popularity of abstract modernism, Dixon reacted against it and chose to return to his American roots in order to find something more fulfilling.