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Dixon Family
Dixon Family
Dixon Family

Dixon Family

Artist (American, 1891 - 1968)
Date1944
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsImage: 53 9/16 x 39 7/8 in. (136 x 101.3 cm)
Support: 53 9/16 x 39 7/8 in. (136 x 101.3 cm)
Frame: 61 9/16 x 47 5/8 x 1 1/2 in. (156.4 x 121 x 3.8 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of W. N. and Susan Dixon, 2013
Object number2013.37
DescriptionFour figures posed in front of a red curtain. The center figure is a dark-haired woman wearing green and with a green and pink fringed scarf. Standing at her right is a young man in black with a white collar, standing with his body in profile and his face at ¾ view; to her left is a boy wearing black with a white collar, seen in profile, holding a green apple in his left hand; on her lap is a blond baby in white clothes and white socks and shoes, its face in profile.
Text Entries
The painting appears to have been removed from the frame and then re-inserted resulting in a large gap between the top edge of the canvas and the frame. When the paining was re-inserted incorrect hardware was used to secure it. On July 9, 2014, the painting was removed from the frame by the MOA Preparator in order to secure it properly and safely back into the frame. Offsets were used to secure the painting. Once the painting was securely attached to the frame a foam core backing and D rings were added. The abrasions along the edges of the painting are no longer visible now that the piece has been properly placed back into the frame.
The artist gives this portrait of a family in Taos a Southwestern flair with a bright, Mexican scarf. Two boys in severe black and white flank their mother, their stiff poses perhaps echoing the region’s tradition of retablo painting. The mother with a baby in her lap – wearing white to suggest purity – also calls to mind the Virgin Mary and Christ, conferring spiritual protection on the family.

According to the donors, those pictured in the painting are Marta “Patsy” Forsberg Dixon (Mrs. W.N. Dixon) and her children:

Hobert “Hobey” Norris Dixon (the eldest); Willard “Bill” Norris Dixon Jr. (the boy holding the apple, who is also one of the donors of the painting); Donald “Don” Eugene Dixon (the baby).

On View
Not on view