Apple Tree

The setting of this rustic scene is likely Ohio, potentially Berlin Heights, where Wilcox sketched during summers from 1910 to 1916. The twisting, bare branches and lack of apples suggest that the artist was focused on capturing organic lines. The small fence running along the bottom of the image provides a comparable scale, which, alongside the cropping of the upper branches, lends a sense of enormity to the trees. A lover of his home state, Wilcox may have been praising Ohio’s natural resources in this work.