The drawings in this catalog are from Benton’s trip to Hollywood in the summer of 1937 while at 20th Century Fox Studios. This group of drawings was collected over several decades with all works having a direct provenance to Tom and Rita Benton. Many of the works were part of the 2015 Benton traveling exhibition ‘American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood’ organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in collaboration with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The subjects in the drawings were people Benton came into contact with while at 20th Century Fox; namely T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, and Will Rogers.
