Mattie with a Bourbon Red Turkey, Lavery Ranch, Custer County, Idaho
Series TitleRiver of No Return
Artist
Laura McPhee
(American, born 1958)
DateNovember, 2004
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage, sheet, mount: 37 9/16 × 30 1/8 inches (95.41 × 76.52 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2013.20.2
SignedSigned in black ink, on gallery label below edition, "Laura McPhee"
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 5/5
On View
On viewGallery Location
- L11
Collections
DescriptionImage of a woman wearing flip flops, jeans, and jacket while holding a turkey by its feet.Gallery LabelHolding her Thanksgiving turkey upside down with its wings spread apart, Mattie—a 13-year-old girl—appears like an inverted angel in Laura McPhee’s portrait. McPhee saw in Mattie a mixture of innocence and resourcefulness that distinguished her from most American adolescents. As she notes: “A young girl on the verge of adulthood, she had an extraordinary childhood. She can hunt and fish; she can raise and kill a turkey.”
Copyright© Laura McPhee
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