The Hen and the Hawk

Born on a farm outside of Dunavant, Kansas, John Steuart Curry was one of the most important American Regionalist painters, along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Curry studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago before starting his career as an apprentice magazine illustrator in New Jersey. Subsequently, he spent a year studying in Paris, where he took great interest in the depictions of violent animal fights by Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix, and Théodore Géricault. Eventually settling in New York City, Curry began painting scenes from the American heartland. Life in rural America was an important subject for his work, as he believed that art should come from one's daily experiences. Though he never lived in the Midwest again, the familiar images of his childhood on the farm were an important source of inspiration. It was there that Curry developed an affinity for natural phenomena and an admiration for farm animals.

Conflict and the struggle for survival, for humans and animals alike, are significant themes in Curry's work. In The Hen and the Hawk, the artist has chosen to depict the most dramatic moment of the narrative, just before the attempted kill. The downward motion of the hawk's attack on the chicks is emphasized by the V-shape created by its outspread wings, and the green zigzag outlines of the trees in the background. Curry draws the viewer’s attention to the turmoil in the center of the composition with the brilliant red of the hen’s comb and wattles, juxtaposed against her earthy white feathers rendered in convincing textural detail. The hen closes her eyes, leaps off the ground while aiming her talons at the hawk, and fiercely defends her young. The chicks scramble to get away from the ensuing conflict, and as a result, one chick tumbles head over foot in the escape. Curry’s portrayal of the hen’s fierce protection of her chicks is also a compassionate metaphor for the power of maternal love.