ERNEST FIENE (1894-1965) Farmers in the Grading Room.

ERNEST FIENE (1894-1965)
Farmers in the Grading Room. Oil on canvas. 711x965 mm; 28x38 inches. Signed lower right. 1942. In 1941 the president of American Tobacco Company approached then director of the New York gallery, Associated American Artists, Reeves Lewenthal to select leading American scene painters to travel to the American southeast to capture in paintings the planting, harvesting, curing and auction of tobacco crops. Amongst the nineteen artists who received the commissions for this project were Arnold Blanch, Aaron Bohrod, and Ernest Fiene. These paintings appeared in adds for Lucky Strike brand cigarettes from 1942 - 1947. In the 1940s over 1.5 million American farms were dedicated to supplying the tobacco industry.