Helen Louise Beccard, sometimes known by her married name of Helen Beccard Niles, was living in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Society of Washington Artists when she received a prize for this expressive painting of staked tomato plants first shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1955. Beccard’s subject represents the ongoing influence of immigrant cultures in the United States. Now a mainstay of the U.S. diet, tomatoes were first cultivated in the early 18th century in the Carolinas, where they may have been introduced by enslaved Africans. Their popularity rose in the mid-19th century, when recipes from Spanish, Italian, and French cuisines became more widespread. Today, it is estimated that every American consumes 21 pounds of tomatoes a year; food remains one of our closest connections to landscape.