Minnie Reinhardt (NC, 1898-1986), Cutting Wheat in Rural North Carolina

Oil on canvas panel, 1983, signed at lower right, dated at lower left, framed.

Panel 18 x 24 in.; Frame dimensions 21 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.

Minnie Reinhardt grew up in the rural farming community of Jugtown, now Vale, in Catawba County, North Carolina. One of eleven children, she spent her early years helping on the family farm, sewing, cooking, raising six children of her own, and working as a seamstress and field laborer. Though she occasionally sketched as a child, art did not become central to her life until much later, when the memories of her rural upbringing would form the heart of her creative work.

After cataract surgery restored her eyesight in 1974, Reinhardt, entirely self taught, began painting in earnest using oils gifted by her daughter. She became known for her “memory paintings,” vivid depictions of barns, farm life, people, and animals that conveyed the warmth and rhythms of everyday rural experience. Often called the “Grandma Moses of Catawba County,” she painted prolifically until her death in 1986. Her work has been exhibited widely, including a major retrospective at the Hickory Museum of Art, and remains a cherished example of American folk and memory painting. (adapted from a post by Karin Borei for Hickory Museum of Art)

Some minor rubbing and scratching to frame; two light scratches to sky.