O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, agricolas!

Gilbert White was commissioned by the federal government in 1932 to create this large mural. He completed and first exhibited the painting in Paris in 1934. The artwork was then shipped to Washington, D.C., for permanent installation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture building in 1935.

White’s mural is a pastoral, a once popular genre of painting defined by idealized and romantic depictions of agricultural production and rural life. The scene appears unmoored from time, with young and old all wearing draped fabrics and reveling in the bounty of nature. The painting’s Latin title—O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, agricolas!—comes from book two of the Roman poet Virgil’s Georgics (Farming) and translates roughly as: "Oh how very happy farmers would be, if only they could see how lucky they are!"

The subject of Virgil’s poem and White’s painting is agriculture, and both draw from Greek mythology to illustrate their themes. In the center of the mural, White included an allegorical depiction of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, sitting on a throne of wheat and holding a sheaf with her right arm. Beside her lies a satyr who plays a pan flute, and at her feet reclines her daughter, Persephone. These details suggest that the location of White’s scene is Arcadia, a mythical paradise and popular setting for classical pastoral paintings.