The Patient Cow

Clarence Holbrook Carter (1904-2000) was an American painter known for his realistic rural scenes of southeastern Ohio that evolved into the Surrealist-influenced metaphysical paintings of his later career. The Patient Cow from 1928 is an early work in the realistic vein, depicting a cow in the Ohio landscape with the precise observation and dry humor that distinguish Carter's best rural subjects. The 1928 date places this at the beginning of Carter's career, when he was painting the southeastern Ohio landscapes that would establish his reputation before the Surrealist turn of his later work.

The Patient Cow is important in Carter's development because it shows the realistic rural subject that established his reputation before the Surrealist evolution of his later career. The painting's precise observation and dry humor demonstrate Carter's ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary—a quality that would become the foundation of his later, more fantastical work.

The Patient Cow is young Carter finding his subject: a cow in the Ohio landscape rendered with precise observation and dry humor that would become the foundation of his later Surrealist evolution. The 1928 watercolor shows the realistic rural subject that established Carter's reputation before the metaphysical turn of his later career.