Cabin in the Cotton

Horace Pippin began painting after returning from World War I to help rehabilitate his right arm which was injured during the war. Pippin had no formal art training and no intentions of becoming a professional painter. Cabin in the Cotton was hanging up in a shoe repair shop in Pippins native West Chester Pennsylvania when local artist N.C. Wyeth and influential art critic Christian Brinton happened to pass by. Upon seeing Cabin in the Cotton, Wyeth and Brinton convinced Horace Pippin to start exhibiting his work. Pippins Cabin in the Cotton sold almost immediately to actor Charles Laughton which prompted newspapers to report the story garnering Pippin instant fame as other celebrities, collectors and museums rushed to purchase art from the latest sensation. Horace Pippin would go on to be one of the most celebrated African American artists of the 20th century and a noted master of the naive or primitive style of painting.