July, 1920 
23 
Sheeler 
A TYPE OF AMERICAN NATIVE ART 
The old carpenters of New England seem to have 
been gifted with a native sense of light and 
shade, line and proportion. They handled the 
straight, broad planks of a door with honest 
artistry. They indented their windows and re¬ 
joiced in the fashioning of the trim. They shaped 
beams out of rough timber and left them to color 
through the years. The stark, quaint, bold sim¬ 
plicity of these old New England farmhouses was 
a product of the New England life. It is typi¬ 
cally American. For typically American people, the 
New England farmhouse can never lose it charm 
