Edward Loper Sr's After a Shower stopped me in my tracks in the Citizen Artist exhibition, which showcases artworks made by hundreds of artists supported by federal programs such as the New Deal and CETA. Painted in 1937, Loper created a captivating post-impressionistic illustration of a moody Wilmington skyline. Completed in his free time, while working for the WPA, Loper presents a wet, dark, moody cityscape, the work of human hands altering the natural world and casting artificial light against darkness. The dark palette of blues, blacks and grays is devoid of stars, yet artificial lights pervade the landscape, creating unnatural areas of brightness and shadow. This is a strong contrast to N.C. Wyeth’s The Springhouse.

Painted seven years later in 1944, The Springhouse depicts the countryside near Wyeth’s home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. A springhouse is a storehouse built over a natural spring to keep food cool. In it, Wyeth meticulously paints every blade of grass in the foreground, scrubbing different shades of color into the edges of each stone brick, creating a warm, intimate scene of the natural world lit by the sun and harmonized to human ingenuity.

The artists tell an intertwined story. Loper confronts us with a built landscape through hazy, indistinct brushstrokes, a canvas filled with darkness and light, natural and unnatural, showing us human domination of nature. Wyeth shows us what it means to exist within the natural landscape through deliberate, patient brushstrokes, creating an environment that breathes air. Both depict structures that engage with water. One bridges over it, the other incorporates it. One is lit by sunlight, the other by human invention.

Janice Castro, Museum Educator and Joseph Soler, Gallery Learning Assistant