In 1939, Texas artist Alexandre Hogue completed "The Crucified Land," a striking comparison of water erosion on a Denton, Texas, wheat farm to the martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth. "The Crucified Land" was originally intended as the final canvas of Hogue's "Erosion" series, which the artist began in 1932 as a condemnation of the careless agricultural practices that had produced wind and water erosion in his home state. When Hogue exhibited "The Crucified Land" that year at the Carnegie International, the painting's provocative religious overtones drew the notice of one critic, who referred to it as the latest in a "series of sermons on conservation."