RICHARD H. JANSEN (1910-1988) RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION / FIELDS ARE ROBBED OF FERTILITY BY MISUSE. Circa 1935. 24 3/4x38 inches, 63x96 1/2 cm. Condition B+: vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears, creases and restoration in margins. The Resettlement Administration was a New Deal entity created in 1935 to help families affected by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. The organization had four divisions: Rural Rehabilitation, Rural Resettlement, Land Utilization, and Suburban Resettlement. Its primary aim was to move poor families into newly constructed communities. By 1937, the agency was deemed ineffective and folded into the Farm Security Administration. Jansen, an artist born in Wisconsin, produced paintings for the WPA which were exhibited around the country, (primarily scenes from the Civilian Conservation Corps). Some of his murals in North Carolina and Florida adorn public buildings even to this day. He was an official war artist during the Second World War, worked for the National Park Service in the 1950s and was head illustrator for the Agricultural Department in the 1970s. This image, one of two Jansen designed, focuses on land utilization, showing a run-down share cropper's shack and ravaged land. Among the other artists who designed posters for the Resettlement Administration were Ben Shahn and his wife, Bernarda Bryson Shahn.
