ABSTRACT
Raymond Jonson became one of the first modernist painters to settle permanently in New Mexico when he and Vera moved to Santa Fe in 1924. They decided to leave Chicago and move to New Mexico after a trip to the state in 1922 convinced them that living there would eliminate the problems of urban life that had long bothered them. Raymond's painting would be rejuvenated and inspired by this new environment. During his years in Chicago, Jonson was striving to find his own identity and mode of expression as a modernist painter. His assimilation of modernist styles was slow and erratic, never taking a conveniently quick and direct path. Spring is the painting in this series that most thoroughly explores the season in question. Jonson began a painting of the subject of spring shortly after completing Winter in 1922, but abandoned it after concluding it was an ill-fated effort.
