Wednesday 06.17.2015

detail from "Cowboys Receiving the Mail"
 

"Cowboys Receiving the Mail"
circa 1939
Otis Dozier, artist
Used with permission of the United States Postal Service©. All rights reserved.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs gave us many treasures to enjoy today.  This mural in the Giddings, Texas post office was painted circa 1939 as part of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts program of the New Deal. 

I love this mural even though it is not an accurate depiction of cowboys - cowboy work is dirty and these fellas are just a little too clean!  Plus the landscape depicts a dessert scene totally unlike the area around Giddings.  But don't you just love the detail of the cowboy with his new fancy boots?  Bet he was ready to go out dancing that night.  But what about the poor guy on the horse?  I can tell by his face that the letter he was hoping for did not come!

Click Here and scroll down a little to read an interesting account of how the mural's subject was chosen!