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	Maynard Dixon U.S., 1875-1946 Volcanic Hills, 1934 Oil on canvas board 16 x 20 in. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jon Stuart, Tulsa, 1999

In 1934, Maynard Dixon was commissioned by the federal government to document the construction of the Boulder Dam on the Colorado River in southern Nevada. While there, Dixon painted this fresh, plein air (painted outdoors directly from nature) landscape, no doubt at a single sitting. It is inscribed to "old Snakebit Bob," Dixon's affectionate nickname for his second wife, the celebrated photographer Dorothea Lange.

Writer Thomas McGuane captured the spirit of Dixon's art when he stated: "To me, no painter has ever quite understood the light, the distances, the aboriginal ghostliness of the American West as well as Maynard Dixon. The great mood of his work is solitude, the effect of land and space on people. While his work stands perfectly well on its claims to beauty, it offers a spiritual view of the West indispensable to anyone who would understand it."