Frances Badger (1904 - 1958) 
Autumn in Illinois, 1936
tempera on illustration board, 10 by 39 inches 
Illinois State Museum collection
Mural study for Audy Juvenile Home, Joliet 
Gift of the Artist

As people look back on their early years, they sometimes romanticize the places in which they grew up (making them seem more beautiful, more perfect than they are, recreating their childhood feelings). 
What places have you romanticized? In what ways? Why? 

The turkeys, haystacks, orchard, and red barn make it an idealized version of a Midwestern farm in the first half of the twentieth century. It looks back, during the Depression, at simpler and better times.

This painting is a study for a wall-sized mural by Frances Badger. Ms. Badger was hired to design the mural for a boys' juvenile detention home when she worked for the Works Progress Administration art program during the Depression. It is painted it in a regionalist style.