Abandoned House, Contra Costa Co., California by Maynard Dixon

Maynard Dixon (American, 1875–1946)
Abandoned House, Contra Costa Co., California, 1931
Oil on canvas laid to Masonite
25 × 30 in.
Frame: 33 x 38 in.
Signed, inscribed, and dated lower right: “Maynard Dixon / Contra Costa. May 1931”

Painted during a period of personal and professional uncertainty, Abandoned House reflects Maynard Dixon’s growing preoccupation with themes of isolation and endurance. Viewed from an elevated hillside, the composition centers on a deserted ranch structure and empty corrals, their enclosing fences tracing soft diagonals across the landscape. Subtle indications of grazing cattle and the gentle modulation of earth tones lend quiet rhythm to the scene, while distant foothills and violet mountains reinforce a sense of emotional and physical distance.

The work was executed during the early years of the Great Depression, when Dixon faced declining sales and shifting artistic tastes that increasingly favored Modernism. In May 1931, he traveled through Contra Costa County shortly before leaving California with his wife, photographer Dorothea Lange, and their children for New Mexico. That journey marked a turning point in Dixon’s career, leading to renewed artistic clarity in the landscapes he produced there. Abandoned House stands at this transitional moment, balancing bucolic calm with a palpable sense of abandonment that mirrors the artist’s own uncertainty on the eve of profound change.

Provenance:
Maxwell Galleries, San Francisco, California; Property from a corporate collection, Los Angeles (acquired 1983)

Literature:
Wesley M. Burnside, Maynard Dixon: Artist of the West, Provo, Utah, 1974, p. 173 (illustrated, likely)