Coyotes Stealing a Pig

Art Historical Context

John Steuart Curry’s *Coyotes Stealing a Pig* (1927) captures a tense moment of rural drama through the bold contrasts of a black lithograph. Created on wove paper, the print’s stark lines and dynamic composition highlight the animals’ stealthy movement as they carry off their prize, distilling the unpredictable realities of farm life into a single, vivid scene. Curry, a central figure in American Regionalism alongside artists like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, often drew on his Kansas upbringing to celebrate—and sometimes dramatize—the rhythms of the Midwest. As a lithograph, the work reflects the artist’s interest in making powerful imagery widely accessible. The medium allowed Curry to translate the energy of his paintings into prints that could reach broader audiences during the 1920s and 1930s. The compact image size (roughly 10 by 15 inches) concentrates the viewer’s attention on the narrative tension, while the generous margins of the sheet invite close looking. Today the print resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, a gift that preserves Curry’s distinctive vision of American rural experience for new generations.