Walter Inglis Anderson (American/Mississippi, 1903-1965), "Sheep and Pine Trees", c. 1943, watercolor and pencil on paper, unsigned, estate stamp upper left, 25 in. x 19 in., framed . Ill.: Maurer, Christopher. Fortune's Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anerson. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003, illustration p. 12. Note: “The sheep grazed at right angles but kept getting closer. They stopped with heads up, then started, ran away, then stopped. Then strung out in a line, walked determinedly westward—then stopped and started, all in perfect harmony with the interrupted lines of pine trees behind them. Animals always move in relation to their surroundings. Harmony is not just a word. It is literally true.” – Walter Anderson. In 1941, following a tumultuous period in his life, Walter Anderson moved into his wife’s family summer home in Gautier, Mississippi. The house was known as Oldfields, and Anderson hoped to reconnect to nature and find spiritual and mental healing. He found himself transfixed by the idea of covering the walls of Oldfields with murals; however, his father-in-law, with whom he had a strained relationship, forbade him from directly painting on the surface of the walls. As an alternative, Anderson decided to create large watercolors on 25 x 19 inch paper which he would then tack to the walls. These “murals,” whose uniting theme was the “beginning of the world,” featured scenes of flora and fauna harmoniously interconnected through a palette of primary colors and fluid lines, as is featured in the masterwork offered here. Ref.: Maurer, Christopher. Fortune’s Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003, pp. 195-196