Thomas Hart Benton's America

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The History of Water

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Thomas Hart benton’s

AMERICA

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5733 South 34th Street, Suite 300 Lincoln, Nebraska 68516 402.420.9553 gallery@kiechelart.com www.kiechelart.com

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Thomas Hart benton’s AMERICA Kiechel Fine Art is honored to represent Thomas Hart Benton masterpiece, The History of Water, along with other paintings of note and works on paper. We thank our patrons and colleagues whose passion for quality and integrity ensure a visual legacy for America’s future.

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1 The History of Water 1930, Egg tempera & oil on panel 83 1/4 (H) x 65 1/4 (W) inches Signed lower right "Benton"

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Thoma s Hart Benton established his reputation in the 1930s with five mural projects that changed the face of American art and provided the principle artistic models for the Work Projects Administration (WPA) mural program. On the strength of these projects, Benton quickly became one of the most famous and controversial artists in America. He was even featured on the cover of Time in 1934; the first time this honor had been awarded to an artist. Today Benton remains a lightning rod for argument and diversity of opinion, whether for his activities as the leader of the Regionalist movement, or for his role as the teacher and mentor of Jackson Pollock.

Four of Benton’s murals of the 1930s have been widely reproduced and written about. His second masterwork, The History of Water, disappeared soon after it was executed when the drugstore for which it was painted went out of business. The painting was removed from its original location and placed in the basement where it sat unnoticed for nearly half a century. It was rediscovered in 1985 when someone recognized Benton’s signature inked in black paint at the lower right.

The History of Water commission came about through circumstances surrounding the creation of Benton’s first large-scale mural, America Today, executed in 1930 for The New School for Social Research in New York. In his eagerness to produce a major mural, Benton agreed to execute America Today for no pay except for the cost of the materials. After the mural’s completion, Alvin Johnson, the director of The New School, was embarrassed that he had taken advantage of the artist. He thus brokered a commission shortly afterwards for Benton to create a mural for a soda fountain in Washington, D.C. The result was The History of Water, the painting featured here.

Executed just after America Today, The History of Water can be seen as a direct continuation of the earlier mural (probably Benton’s most famous painting), and is particularly similar to the last two panels: City Activities with Subway and City Activities with Dance Hall. Benton

2 Man at Soda Fountain 1930, Graphite. 12 x 8 1/4 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

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seems to have looked through the large portfolio of sketches he had developed for America Today and arranged them in a new configuration. There are many parallel subject matter and some of the models are easily recognizable.

For example, the woman with a hat and high heels who is sitting on a barstool in The History of Water also appears in City Activities with Subway.

She is the well-known burlesque performer, Peggy Reynolds, who appears in the subway scene of America Today, where she is being ogled

by Max Eastman. Benton probably used the same drawing for both murals. To prevent this reuse from becoming too obvious, he reversed the direction of the head and changed the color of her hat (from red to gold) and her dress (from gold to blue).

3 Girl at Soda Fountain 1930, Graphite. 16 x 14 inches Signed lower left “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 10-2 “Tom Benton and His Drawings”

The woman in a red dress applying makeup on the left side of The History of Water is likely the same woman who appears on the left side of City Activities with Dancer, where she is depicted dancing with an elderly man. She has the same figure, the same red dress and the same hair style. The woman in the blue dress in The History of Water is probably the same woman who appears in America Today behind the red-robed dancer.

Most of the other figures are close to those in the soda fountain scene on the right hand side of City Activities with Dance Hall. The soda jerk can be specifically identified as Benton’s friend Leo Huberman, a history teacher at the City and Country School, which Benton’s son attended.

Several figures in The History of Water also bear a general relationship with figures in Benton's next major mural project, The Arts of Life in America, 1932, for the Whitney Museum of American Art. For example, the figure with a cap at the end of the counter is similar to the man sipping coffee in the section of the Whitney mural that Benton titled None Shall Go Hungry.

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The foreground of The History of Water does not closely relate to America Today.

Benton probably made new drawings for this section to specifically develop the theme of the commission. Nonetheless, there are some interesting parallels with his later works. For example, the kneeling Indian resembles Indian figures found in Benton's American Historical Epic of the 1920s, as well as Indians found in the opening scenes of his mural of A Social History of Indiana. The little boy pumping water at the lower left is probably Benton's son, Thomas Piacenza Benton, who reappears two years later in The Arts of Life in America, where he reads comic books with Benton's nephew Roger Small. The little girl in the foreground of The History of Water is likely one of Benton's nieces.

The authenticity of The History of Water is confirmed by the fact that there are several securely documented studies by Benton for the composition. A study showing the complete composition, tempera on board, 20 x 18 inches, was sold at Christie's on December 5, 1986, lot 264. A sketch for the girl at the soda fountain is in the Benton Trust. The Benton Trust also holds a hasty sketch of a coffee urn that most likely was made for this mural.

Several factors make The History of Water notable both historically and artistically: it comes from what is generally considered to be Benton's best period; it relates very closely to Benton’s most famous mural, America Today; and, it may well be the last Benton mural of the 1930s that will ever come up for sale.

ARTICLE W RITTEN BY DR . HENRY ADAMS

Author of Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original and the upcoming catalogue raisonné

EXHIBITION HISTORY Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original (1989-90) Curated by Henry Adams • Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City • Detroit Institute of Arts • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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The Arts of Life in America: Whitney Museum Murals

a b o v e Arts of Life in America, Arts of Life in the City

Murals for the Whitney Museum of American Art 1932, Egg tempera and oil on panel New Britain Museum of American Art r i g h t Arts of Life in America, None Shall Go Hungry

Murals for the Whitney Museum of American Art 1932, Egg tempera and oil on panel New Britain Museum of American Art

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4 Diner at a Lunch Counter 1932, Graphite. 13 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 10-2 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” A significant difference between Benton’s treatment of the city in 1930–1931 and his handling of the theme in 1932 is revealed in this drawing. Benton’s usual wisecracking optimism has deserted him.

Suddenly, sinister forces are at work beneath the glittering veneer of New York. There is crime. There is despair. And people are jobless, poor, hungry.

The far left corner of the Arts of the City is given over to a pictorial admission that the Depression is a new urban reality. The rituals of a beauty pageant are undisturbed by the bleak scenes that unfold around it: one man scavenges in a garbage can; another queues up for a handout at a mission; the third gulps his meal for the day, a thin sandwich and a cup of weak coffee. Benton called that segment of the mural None Shall Go Hungry. —Karal Ann Marling

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5 Hoodlum (Bootlegger) 1932, Graphite. 13 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches Signed lower middle “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 10-5 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” Entertainment is the creature of industry; crime, too, is controlled, quite literally in Arts of the City, by a sinister machine, an affair of dials and levers that flanks an ascending social hierarchy of corruption.

He called the vignette Prohibition–Booze–Politics–Business. At the bottom of the heap, with his still nearby, stands this desperado with a revolver, guided and manipulated from behind by a politician who, in turn is controlled by a caricature of a millionaire in a silk hat. Via this ladder of wrongdoing, the booze moves from the still to the top of the panel, where the cocktails are being shaken. —Karal Ann Marling

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6 Radio Soprano 1932, Graphite. 18 1/8 x 11 inches Signed “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 10-2 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” In contrast to the people-centered “arts” on display in the New School City Activities panels, this singer is a tiny cog in a huge entertainment “industry,” the factorylike character of which is empasized by the lights, towers, high-tension lines and dynamo that overpower the performers.

The artless art of the people delighted Benton, but he was less sanguine about those arts merely directed at people. What emerges in the Whitney cycle is the first intimation of a conflict between the claims of folk and popular art, a distinction Benton tried hard not to draw too firmly, but one that bothered him throughout his later flings at being an ad man and a movie studio functionary. —Karal Ann Marling

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A Social History of the State of MissourI 7 Jim’s Catfish 1936, Graphite. 12 x 8 3/4 inches i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 14-4 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” One of Benton’s nicest studies, showing both delicacy of handling and linear inventiveness, this depiction of the fish caught by Nigger Jim presages Benton’s growing interest in nature and his skill at capturing the textural qualities of natural materials.

In the mural, the fish gives the Mark Twain characters some raison d’être for being on their raft; it is also calculated to delight anyone who has fished the waters of the Mississippi and enjoyed a local delicacy often scorned elsewhere. —Karal Ann Marling

a b o v e A Social History of the State of Missouri, Pioneer Days and Early Settlers, Huck Finn Panel

Murals for the Missouri State Capitol. Missouri State Museum.

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a b o v e A Social History of the State of Missouri, Politics, Farming and Law

Murals for the Missouri State Capitol. Missouri State Museum.

8 Missouri Man (Jesse James) 1936, Graphite. 16 x 14 inches Signed lower middle “Benton Missouri Mural”

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July 26, 1937 Life Magazine Illustrations By mid-1937, rumors of the clashing rise of communism and fascism in America’s industrial midland had grown so urgent that the imperturbable New York Times assigned one of its ablest reporters, F. Raymond Daniell, to investigate. He sped to Michigan, turned in an alarming report of a State verging on civil war. Solemnly he pointed out that “both armies are highly mobile” and it is a rare household that has not at least one deer rifle or shotgun.”

LIFE then decided to see for itself. For eyes it picked famed Thomas Hart Benton, not only because he is perhaps the ablest living painter of the American scene (LIFE, March 1) but also because he, great-great-nephew of Missouri’s first Senator, is a serious student of that scene. Guided by a seasoned Detroit reporter, Painter Benton pursued his search over the July 4 week-end. The resulting sketches, with captions by Benton, you see on these pages.

Shunning the ease of an out-of-town newshawk whom they found reporting Michigan’s “revolution” from the rear, Thomas Hart Benton and his guide set out for Pengelly Hall, United Automobile Workers headquarters in Flint. Often compared to Lenigrad’s Smolny Institute, nursery of the Russian Revolution, Pengelly showed nothing more sinister than workmen and women musing and talking over their beer. Assured by conservatives that they would see a real “communist outing,” Benton and his guide proceeded next day to a big U.A.W. picnic in Flint Park. No red flags were in evidence, but the investigators did see “communists” give a Fascist salute in response to a speaker’s query. They also saw picnickers crowding around the game concessions; children lining up at the gate of the baseball diamond; a unionist being publically married by a Tennessee hillbilly preacher; assorted merrymakers just eating and loafing.

Painter and guide now turned their search toward Fascism. Just outside Detroit they discovered Schwaben Park, one of the many woodsy hideaways where they had heard that German–Americans, “undoubtedly Nazis,” were regularly engaging in uniformed parades, firearm practice, mounted drill. Schwaben’s gatekeeper invited them to beer and pretzels.

Inside they were treated to the sight of fair-haired children riding ponies and popping air rifles while their elders listened to the music of a brass band. Trudging on, LIFE’s investigators tracked down American Legionnaires, reputed backbone of Michigan’s vigilante movement, parading lustily at a Rose Festival in suburban Roseville. —LIFE 12

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9 Nazi Upheaval in Michigan c. 1937, Ink, graphite & sepia wash.

12 x 8 3/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d July 26, 1937, LIFE magazine

In the summer…Life sent him to Michigan to take a satirical look at the Fourth of July picnics of the purported Communists of the U.A.W. and the purported Fascists of the German– American social clubs. — K aral A nn M arling “ Tom B enton and H is D rawings” 10 U.A.W.A. Picnic 1937, Ink, graphite and sepia wash.

12 x 8 1/2 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 55 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” Unused illustration July 26, 1937, LIFE magazine

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11 Western Town with Road to Mountain Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 7 5/8 x 11 7/8 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

12 American Hotel / Western Landscape Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 7 5/8 x 11 7/8 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

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Going West is one of Benton’s very finest drawings, ranking with the best drawings by him I have seen. Indeed, if one were choosing one drawing by him to sum up his artistic achievement, I can’t think of a better example. I would not hesitate to rank this piece as one of the most outstanding drawings of the 20th century by any American artist.

The image is both modern, with a sense of movement and energy that recalls the Italian Futurists, and wonderfully American in its evocation of the great open spaces of the American West.

This is a preparatory study for Benton’s lithograph Going West, often regarded as Benton’s finest print. Personally, I like the drawing a little better than the print, although both are marvelous. It’s more forceful in its expressive exaggerations, such as the way the front of the locomotive pushes ahead of the rest of the train, and the use of line is freer, more expressive, and less self-conscious. I particularly love the virtuosity of the single wiggling line that represents smoke coming from the front stack, as well as richly evoked volume of the swirls of the smoke in the background, and the way that Benton really dug into the paper to capture the dark shapes of the cowcatcher and the wheels of the train…This is made by an artist who understands the significance of every element and detail. Also, the execution is marvelously free and wonderfully expressive. There are passages of great delicacy and other passages, such as some of the lines of shading on the embankment, which are executed very boldly, with Benton’s very distinctive and impatient scribblescrabble line. —Dr. Henry Adams

13 Express Train (Going West) c. 1930–34, Lithographic crayon. 5 x 11 inches Initialed lower right “B” b e n t o n ’s a m e r i c a

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14 Camp Wagon, High Country Valley c. 1965, Ink wash and graphite. 11 3/4 x 15 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

15 Three Cacti and Mountain 1958, Ink wash and gouache. 9 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches Signed and dated lower right “Benton ‘58”

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16 Apache Indian c. 1935–40, Watercolor and ink. 11 x 8 1/2 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

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17 The New Pony Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 9 x 16 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

18 Man with Scythe c. 1930–35, Graphite and colored pencil. 9 x 13 3/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

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19 Back View Man with Scythe Ink and graphite. 9 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

20 Threshing c. 1935, Graphite. 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches Unsigned

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21 Running Horses and other Sketches c. 1930, Ink. 11 1/8 x 14 1/2 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

22 Country Schoolroom with Stove c. 1935–40, Ink wash and graphite. 11 1/4 x 8 5/8 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Frontispiece for “Schoolhouse in the Foothills” by Ella Enslow

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23 Cotton Pickers c. 1935, Graphite. 12 x 15 inches Signed and titled lower middle “Cotton Pickers — Benton”

24 Natchez, Mississippi c. 1935, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 7 x 9 1/4 inches Signed and annotated lower right “Benton Natchez, Miss”

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25 Steamboat “City of Memphis” c. 1930–35, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 9 x 11 3/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 12-4 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” With the float of logs in the foreground, this drawing already suggests the composition of the Huckleberry Finn vignette in the Missouri Capitol. In the mural, Tom Benton renamed her the Sam Clemens.

He returned to the river in 1939, when he was commissioned to illustrate Tom Sawyer, and promptly exhibited another group of riverboat drawings at the New York galleries of Associated American Artists in that year. In his illustrator’s foreword to Huckleberry Finn, issued in 1942, Benton revealed a deep affection for the Mississippi and the historical spectacle represented by the passing traffic on its waters: “I know the rivers, and its backwaters and tributaries, not only as geographic facts but jet-black. I was raised among people who talked the language of Huck Finn’s people, who thought like them, and acted like them. I am in that book just as the book, after all these years of reading it, is in me. The difference between Huck’s time and my time as a boy was a matter of fifty years or so.” —Karal Ann Marling

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Three Rivers South: The Story of Young Abe Lincoln Written By Virginia S. Eifert; Illustrated by Thomas Hart Benton

26 Young Abe Lincoln c. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache.

12 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” Frontispiece illustration for Virginia S. Eifert’s “Three Rivers South: The Story of Young Abe Lincoln” i l l u s t r at e d

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Foot on the log, wind in his hair, big hands waving the mallet for emphasis, Abe’d go on for twenty minutes from memory

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( above )

c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed lower left “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 4

In the surging, boiling, whirling current of the flooding Sangamon, the canoe was at the mercy of the tossing brown water 28

( top R ight )

c. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 5 (bottom right ) The boys yelled and the dogs barked and the hogs squealed and trumpeted as they charged desperately

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c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed “Benton” lower left and initialed “B.” lower right i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 36

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Abe tried to stop the big boat before she was wrecked. She stopped all right, stopped with a sickening crunch.

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( top left )

c. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache. 10 3/4 x 7 3/16 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 37

Abe leaped like a long-legged panther in the direction of the sound, and just outside the circle of light…he ran into a man

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(bottom left )

c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 68 ( above ) “Well sir,” Abe continued, “when he heard all the racket and smelled…brimstone…the chief walked out on the cliff top

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c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed lower left “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 69

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Abe nosed the flatboat toward the shore and she settled into a berth on the crowded bustling St. Louis water front

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( above )

c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed and initialed lower left “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 100

“My pappy say you-all should come up to the house,” the girl repeated patiently. “Y’ll must be fair soaked.”

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( top right )

c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 3/16 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 132 (bottom right ) It was a glorious bright day when Abe Lincoln tied up the flatboat at the Natchez water front, along Silver Street

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c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed and initialed lower right “Benton B.” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 133

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(left ) Denton Offutt at once became the man of business. He brushed off his best coat, buffed his hat, shined his boots and bustled off

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c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 164

A month in the old city which was New Orleans in 1831 could hardly be dull to Abe and Jack, sallying out to explore 37

(right )

c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches Signed “Benton” lower left and initialed “B.” lower right i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 165

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38 Steam Generator c. 1937, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches Signed and dated lower right “Benton”

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39 Judge Sturgis Study 1924, Ink and graphite. 8 x 5 inches Titled, dated & signed lower right “Judge Sturgis 1924 Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 19 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” 4 0 Judge Sturgis 1924, Watercolor. 22 1/4 x 15 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

John Thomas Sturgis, representing the bar of Missouri since 1888, and called to the bench in 1913 as a member of the Springfield court of appeals, was born in Smithfield, Ohio, October 27, 1861. He entered the Clarksburg College and subsequently Drury College at Springfield, Missouri. He was graduated from the latter in 1886, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1889 his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree.

After leaving Drury College, Judge Sturgis devoted two years to teaching school and within that period gave his leisure to the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1887 and in the spring of 1888 opened a law office at Neosho, Missouri, where he practiced continuously and successfully for about a quarter of a century, or until he was elected to the Springfield court of appeals in 1915 for an eight years’ term.

Judge Sturgis gave his political support to the democratic party and was a stalwart advocate of its principles, but did not allow political questions or allegiance to interfere with that even-handed justice which makes the court the conservator of the rights and liberties, the life and property of the individual.

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41 Flood “Mississippi Backwater” 1937, Ink, graphite and sepia wash . 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches Signed and dated lower right “Benton ‘37” i l l u s t r at e d Henry Adams, Page 277 “Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original”

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42 Freighter at Dockside with Tugboat c. 1940, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

43 Houseboats with other Boats in Bay c. 1930, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

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4 4 Cliffs Above Eagle Creek 1965, Ink wash, graphite and gouache. 11 x 13 3/4 inches Titled lower middle “Cliffs above Eagle Creek” Signed and dated lower right “Benton 65”

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45 Landscape with Figure on Rocks above Waterfall ( above ) c. 1940–50, Graphite and sepia. 16 1/2 x 15 5/8 inches Signed lower left “Benton” 4 6 Three Trees Before Bluff near Water (bottom right ) Ink wash and graphite. 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d “An Artist in America” by Thomas Hart Benton

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Strike (WAITING ON VERSO)

Benton made two compositions around this time of strike activities, this piece and a painting titled Strikebreakers, 1931, which was formerly in the collection of Senator William Benton of Southport, Connecticut. He clearly thought that this was the better of the two since he used it as the basis for a lithograph, Strike (also known as Mine Strike) which was issued in 1933 by the short-lived Contemporary Print Group, which also included such well-known artists as Reginald Marsh, Jose Clemente Orozco, George Crosz and John Steuart Curry. Benton described the scene as: “Strike battle in the coal country. This is an imaginary reconstruction of a situation only too common in the late twenties and early thirties.”

Benton was particularly interested in social issues in 1933, since in that year he illustrated a modern social history of the United States by his friend Leo Huberman, We the People, published by Harper & Brothers, New York.

The oil sketch on the back is also very interesting. It is a study for a painting titled Waiting, 1934, a work you will find reproduced in the catalogue of Benton’s exhibition at the Associated American Artists in New York in 1934, plate 30.

Benton’s use of oil on tin has an interesting origin. The father of his wife Rita was an Italian copper and tin worker, and Benton picked up the habit of making paintings on scraps that were left over from his projects.

—Dr. Henry Adams

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47 Strike 1933, Double-sided oil on tin. 13 1/4 x 15 3/8 inches Signed lower left “Benton” Waiting (on verso) 8 x 7 1/2 inches p r o v e n a n c e Thomas Hart Benton Estate exhibitions

Benton’s Bentons-Touring Feb. 15, 1981-Sept. 26, 1982 • Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas City • Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence • Smart Gallery, University of Chicago

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4 8 Kentuckian Sketch c. 1954, Graphite. 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

49 Study of boy for “The Kentuckian” c. 1954, Graphite. 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

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5 0 The Goat Girl, Mabel Look ( S tudy for Ma b el an d th e G oat ) 1961, Graphite. 16 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 18-5 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” Benton’s interest in old age was balanced by a fresh interest in youth, in the generations, in his own grandchildren and the newest members of the Yankee clans he had painted for years. His finished portrait of the Goat Girl, Mabel Look, the youngest member of the Henry Look family Benton painted often in the forties, hung over the desk in the living room of Benton’s Vineyard cottage in the summer of 1974, his last summer in the retreat he loved.

—Karal Ann Marling

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51 Negro Boy ( S tudy for the L incoln U niversity M ural ) c. 1954, Graphite. 8 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches Signed and annotated lower right “Benton Lincoln Mural”

52 Old Nick Nickens, Left-Handed Fiddler 1974, Graphite. 13 3/4 x 11 inches Signed lower middle “Benton” Titled “Old Nick Nickens ‘left handed fiddler’ Branson” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 9 “Tom Benton and His Drawings”

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53 Locomotive beside Logs Graphite. 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches Signed lower middle “Benton”

5 4 Seated Woman with Veil on Hat c. 1930, Graphite. 12 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches Signed lower right “Benton”

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55 Brooklyn Bridge, New York c. 1923–24, Graphite. 8 x 5 inches i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 1-1 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” Benton began to carry a pocket sketchbook with him after his discharge from the Navy, to jot down his observations on the streets of the city, along the waterfront, and at the construction sights that, perhaps as a result of his wartime drawings of machinery, were the predominant theme of this little portfolio. Orthodox modernists were also obsessed with the ceaseless building and rebuilding of New York and the new skyscrapers of Manhattan, symbolizing the dawn of the “modern” era. —Karal Ann Marling

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56 Construction Scene (Excavation) 1924, Crayon on tracing paper. 13 3/4 x 16 7/8 inches Signed and dated lower right “Benton ‘24”

57 Locomotive (Moving to the Left) 1926, Graphite. 9 3/8 x 6 3/4 inches Signed and dated lower middle “Benton ‘26” i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling, Plate 14 “Tom Benton and His Drawings”

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Harbor Scene is undoubtedly one of the watercolors that Benton made in the Navy, while stationed at Norfolk, Virginia.

In 1918, to avoid being drafted in the infantry, Benton used family influence to get a position in the Navy. In September 1918, he was assigned to the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, where he made descriptive drawings of boats and construction projects for record-keeping purposes. Benton spent two days a week gathering information with a photographer and was supposed to spend the next three days finishing his sketches, but since he could finish his drawings in less than an hour this left him a substantial amount of time for his own work.

While not chiefly remembered as a watercolorist, Benton had an exceptional talent for this medium. He established the basic features of his watercolor style in 1907–08, when he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. While studying in Chicago, Benton learned to make watercolors rapidly and directly, with bold colors reminiscent of Impressionist or Post-Impressionist paintings (including the use of blue shadows). In addition, after seeing an exhibition of Japanese prints from the collection of Frank Lloyd Wright, he became interested in dramatic patterns, in the interplay of figure and ground, and in the use of evenly gradated tones of color in areas such as the sky.

While executed some ten years later, this Harbor Scene watercolor capitalizes on many of these techniques. The execution is forceful and direct, and the colors bold. Shapes are often created through the clever articulation of figure-ground relationships, notably in the case of the background buildings, which are defined by the pattern they make against the sky. Flat color areas, such as the walls of the buildings, are played against areas with gradated colors, as in the sky and water. Benton’s pattern making skill becomes evident when we study forms that are similar, such as windows, and note how he expresses them in different ways, often evoking the shape by outlining only a small part of the overall form.

What distinguishes the Navy watercolors from Benton’s early work is a greater interest in rhythmic relationships of three-dimensional form. As a group, the Navy watercolors vary somewhat in their style, ranging from a Cubist–Futurist approach, to a somewhat more straightforward realism, as in this example. But even the more realistic, closely observed examples, organize geometric shapes in a way which leads the eye through the composition in rhythmic pathways, such as the line of visual movement in this watercolor which runs from the smokestack of the tugboat to the three-masted vessel to the storage tanks in the background. —Dr.Henry Adams 46

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58 Harbor Scene, Norfolk 1915, Watercolor. 10 x 15 inches Signed lower left “Benton” exhibitions

Boise Art Museum San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “American Realism: Twentieth Century Drawings and Watercolors” November 7, 1985–January 12, 1986

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59 Study for County Politics c. 1955–64, Graphite. 14 x 17 inches i l l u s t r at e d

Karal Ann Marling, Plate 18-6 “Tom Benton and His Drawings” The specific scene pictured in this study is the square in front of the Buffalo, Missouri, courthouse, one of the loveliest old courthouses in the state, since destroyed; the setting recalls the central square of many an old Missouri town, including Neosho…The nostalgic overtones of the picture are suggested by the old men, trading in favors and solving the problems of the world on the courthouse lawn, and by the old cars, sadly out of date in the fifties or the sixties. Benton always paid attention to the cars as temporal symbols; in these years, he was fully capable of noticing a late-model station wagon or a brand-new bus.

Thus, these ancient relics are a deliberate feature of a backward glance at a vanishing scene—a part of Americana that would disappear with the passage of Benton’s own generation. —Karal Ann Marling

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thomas hart benton LITHOGRAPHS 6 0 A Drink of Water 1937, Lithograph. 14 1/2 x 10 inches

71 Night Firing 1943, Lithograph. 13 1/8 x 8 3/4 inches

61 Edge of Town 1938, Lithograph. 9 x 10 3/4 inches

72 Photographing the Bull 1950, Lithograph. 11 15/16 x 16 inches

62 Frankie and Johnnie 1936, Lithograph. 16 2/8 x 22 1/8 inches

73 Rainy Day 1938, Lithograph. 8 3/4 x 13 3/8 inches

63 Gateside Conversation 1946, Lithograph. 9 7/8 x 14 inches

74 Self-Portrait (Head) 1973, Lithograph. 11 5/8 x 9 1/2 inches

6 4 Goin’ Home 1937, Lithograph. 9 3/8 x 12 inches

75 Shallow Creek 1939, Lithograph. 14 1/4 x 9 5/16 inches

65 Haystack 1938, Lithograph. 10 3/8 x 12 7/8 inches

76 Slow Train Through Arkansas 1941, Lithograph. 10 x 12 3/4 inches

6 6 Hymn Singer 1950, Lithograph. 16 x 12 3/8 inches

77 Strike (Mine Strike) 1933, Lithograph. 9 1/4 x 10 13/16 inches

67 In the Ozarks (Homestead) 1938, Lithograph. 11 1/4 x 14 inches

78 Sunday Morning 1939, Lithograph. 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches

6 8 Island Hay 1945, Lithograph. 10 x 12 5/8 inches

79 Ten Pound Hammer 1967, Lithograph. 14 1/2 x 10 inches

69 Loading Corn 1945, Lithograph. 10 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

8 0 The Farmer’s Daughter 1944, Lithograph. 13 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches

70 Mr. President 1971, Lithograph. 8 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

81 Threshing 1941, Lithograph. 9 1/4 x 14 inches

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82 Black Man Pulling Watercolor and oil crayon. 17 3/4 x 13 1/4 inches Signed lower right “Benton�

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83 g r an t wo o d Corn Cob Chandelier c. 1925–26, Iron, copper and gold leaf. 94 x 32 x 34 inches One of two chandeliers designed for the Montrose Hotel Dining Room in Cedar Rapids, IA. The other is in the collection of the Cedar Rapids Art Museum, Iowa.

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8 4 g r an t wo o d Untitled (Autumn Landscape with Sumac) Oil on canvas. 24 x 27 1/4 inches Signed lower left “Grant Wood� p r o v e n a n c e LeRoy Dunn commissioned this painting for his business in Des Moines, IA

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GRANT WOOD LITHOGRAPHS 8 5 Approaching Storm 1940, Lithograph. 11 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches 8 6 December Afternoon 1940, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches 87 Family Doctor 1940, Lithograph. 10 x 11 7/8 inches 8 8 February 1940, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches 8 9 March 1939, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches 9 0 Midnight Alarm 1939, Lithograph. 11 7/8 x 7 inches 91 Seed Time and Harvest 1937, Lithograph. 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches 92 Shrine Quartet 1939, Lithograph. 8 x 11 7/8 inches 93 Vegetables 1939, Hand-colored lithograph. 8 1/2 x 11 inches 9 4 Wild Flowers 1939, Hand-colored lithograph. 7 x 10 inches

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Contents

54

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h i s t o r y o f w at e r

pa g e

The History of Water

2

Man at Soda Fountain

3

Girl at Soda Fountain

4

arts of life in america

Diner at a Lunch Counter

7

Hoodlum (Bootlegger)

8

Radio Soprano

9

m i s s o u r i s tat e c a p i t o l

Jim’s Catfish, Huck Finn Panel

10

Missouri Man (Jesse James)

11

life maga zine

Nazi Upheaval in Michigan

13

UAWA Picnic

13

Western Town with Road to Mountain

14

American Hotel / Western Landscape

14

Express Train (Going West)

15

Back View, Man with Scythe

16

Threshing

16

The New Pony

17

Man with Scythe

17

Camp Wagon, High Country Valley

18

Three Cacti and Mountain

19

Apache Indian

19

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pa g e

Cotton Pickers

20

Natchez, Mississippi

20

Running Horses

21

Country Schoolroom

21

Steamboat “City of Memphis” 22 t h r e e r i v e r s s o u t h i l l u s t r at i o n s

Steam Generator

j u d g e s t u r g i s an d s t u dy

23-30 31 32-33

Flood “Mississippi Backwater” 34 Freighter at Dockside

35

Houseboats with other Boats

35

Landscape with Figure on Rocks

36

Cliffs Above Eagle Creek

37

Three Trees before Bluff near Water

37

strike

39

kentuckian

Kentuckian Sketch

40

Study of boy for “The Kentuckian” 40 m a b e l a n d t h e g o at

The Goat Girl, Mabel Look

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41

pa g e

Negro Boy (Study for Lincoln Mural)

42

Old Nick Nickens

42

Locomotive beside Logs

43

Seated Woman with Veil

43

e a r ly w o r k

Brooklyn Bridge

44

Construction Scene

45

Locomotive (Moving to the Left)

45

harbor scene

47

Study for County Politics

48

benton lithographs

49

Black Man Pulling

50

grant wood

Corn Cob Chandelier

51

Untitled (Autumn Landscape with Sumac)

52

grant wood lithographs

53

contents

54-57

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Bibliography

a d a m s , h e n r y Thomas Hart Benton: An American

Original, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1989 m a r l i n g , k a r a l a n n Tom Benton and His Drawings: A

Biographical Essay and a Collection of His Sketches, Studies and Mural Cartoons, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985 e i f e r t , v i r g i n i a s . Three Rivers South: The Story of Young

Abe Lincoln, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985 e n s l o w , e l l a Schoolhouse in the Foothills

Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985 b e n t o n , t h o m a s h a r t An Artist in America

Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1985 l i f e m a g a z i n e “Artist Thomas Hart Benton Hunts Communists

and Fascists in Michigan� July 26, 1937

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gallery

5733 South 34 Street, Suite 300 th

Lincoln, Nebraska 68516 tel: 402.420.9553 fax: 402.420.9554 w w w. k i e c h e l a r t. c o m g a l l e r y@ k i e c h e l a r t. c o m

director

Buck Kiechel buck1@kiechelart.com Vivian Kiechel vivian@kiechelart.com

back cover image

Young Abe Lincoln b e n t o n ’s a m e r i c a

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KIECHEL FINE ART 5733 S O U T H 34 T H S T R E E T, S U I T E 300 L I N CO L N , N E B R A S K A 68516 W W W. K I E C H E L A R T. CO M G A L L E RY @ K I E C H E L A R T. CO M

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