Moving Produce by Goat Cart & Kid Power
It can’t be helped that every Johnson collector has her or his favorites. I have several favorite series, and the children using goat carts to move their vegetables and fruits are among them.
I am guessing that the variety of conveyances photographed by Johnson for his scenes were people in and around Waupun who were using them around town. It's easy to see how they would inspire Johnson to turn them into a setting for his exaggerated produce.
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Just Plums
(1911) has two goats and
two
boys.
When I first studied this scene I was convinced that there
was only one boy in the shot and that he had been printed
twice and reversed and pasted in. Having seen the original
photo from which this was made, i can see that they are two
different boys, probably brothers, because they look alike.
The boys have their coats buttoned in reverse of each othere
which is why I drew that conclusion initially. Apparently
either one boy did his buttons wrong or the person who made
them made a mistake. Only the plums are added to this scene,
and they are just very simply pasted on the surface with no
manipulation to put them behind anything else.
In
Strong Combination
(1913) the humor is in the title. These appear to be
the same or similar pair of (aromatic) goats
as above
with an equally aromatic onion.
In
Strawberry Express No. 1,
(1913)
the title is cleverly integrated into
the wagon.
Early Onions
(1912) shows us an
entirely different kind of
goat cart as well as a different
goat based on the horn pattern.
Apple Butter
(1913) has a boy riding high on top
of an apple on the way to being
turned into apple butter.
Strawberries
(1912) is a beautiful card.
Of course, a pony does not qualify
as a goat, but the design is
similar.
The little horse looks so healthy
and the strawberries look so fresh.
Peaches
(1911) shows us another example of
Johnson’s duplication of images. The
boys on the left and right are
different poses of the same person
printed in different sizes as in
Just Plums. |
