John Fairbanks (1855-1940), SpringShower, 1898, oil on panel, 11 13/16 x 18 11/16 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 1940
John B. Fairbanks felt a necessary desire to paint “The Farm”. Perhaps it was hours spent in the fields of Payson, Utah as a boy, the French countryside he fell in love with during his studies in Paris, or the landscapes he was commissioned to paint in the newly completed Salt Lake City Temple that inspired him, but the need to capture the land influenced the remainder of his career. Here, a fallow field in Utah Valley patiently awaits the farmer to begin his annual planting. The clouds of a passing thunderstorm part allowing the sun to spread its warming light across the foreground. In the distance a brilliant rainbow, the promise of a new beginning, arches over the farmhouse.