Pollard Tamarisks (Drawn Near Salton Sea, California)

Henri De Kruif

There is no indication of this work's exact date or edition size. However, another impression of this image, found online, includes annotations on the frame's paper backing that read: "Pollard Tamarisks, a lithograph / Drawn near Salton Sea, Calif. / by Henri De Kruif, [artist's Los Angeles address] / First Prize, International Print Makers, 1937 / Was exhibited at New York World's Fair, 1939 / and the Paris World's Fair, 1936".

De Kruif depicts a twilight scene in which a figure looks out on a barren land, with only the twisting forms of pollarded tamarisks beside her. He achieves a mysteriousness with his use of soft tonality, and the sliver of moon hung at the top center of the scene.

Tamarisk, a highly invasive flowering shrub from Asia that is found throughout the American southwest, grows in strange formations that can appear creature-like with its soft, full foliage and multi-armed trunks. At the time of this work's creation, the body of water now known as the Salton Sea - and it's modern recognition as one of the biggest environmental disasters in California history - was not yet fully created. Less than a blip on vacationer's screens, it was a shallow wetland by 1935 that attracted the occasional artist for its peaceful, desert oasis-like quietude.