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BENTON S AMERICA KIECHEL FINE ART

Thomas Hart Benton's America

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Kiechel Fine Art is honored to represent Thomas Hart Benton’s masterpiece, The History of Water, along with other paintings of note and works on paper. Selected works by fellow Regionalists John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood are included.

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K I E C H E L F I N E A R T

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c o v e r i m a g e The History of Water

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Thomas harT benTon’s

AMERICA

KIECHEL FINE ART

5733 South 34th Street, Suite 300

Lincoln, Nebraska 68516

402.420.9553

[email protected]

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 Water1930, Egg tempera & oil on panel83 1/4 (H) x 65 1/4 (W) inchesSigned lower right "Benton"

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T h o m a s h a r T b e n To n 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 Fountain1930, Graphite. 12 x 8 1/4 inchesSigned 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).

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.

3 Girl at Soda Fountain1930, Graphite. 16 x 14 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”i l l u s t r at e d Karal Ann Marling,

Plate 10-2 “Tom Benton and His Drawings”

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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.

a r t i c l e W r i t t e n bY d r . h e n rY a da m s

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

EXHIBITION HISTORYThomas 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 Counter1932, Graphite. 13 5/8 x 11 1/4 inchesSigned 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 inchesSigned 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 Soprano1932, Graphite. 18 1/8 x 11 inchesSigned “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 Catfish1936, Graphite. 12 x 8 3/4 inchesi 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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8 Missouri Man (Jesse James)1936, Graphite. 16 x 14 inchesSigned lower middle “Benton Missouri Mural”

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.

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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

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10 U.A.W.A. Picnic 1937, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 12 x 8 1/2 inchesSigned 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

9 Nazi Upheaval in Michigan c. 1937, Ink, graphite & sepia wash. 12 x 8 3/4 inchesSigned 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 A R A L A N N M A R L I N G “ T O M B E N T O N A N D H I S D R A W I N G S ”

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11 Western Town with Road to MountainInk, graphite and sepia wash. 7 5/8 x 11 7/8 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

12 American Hotel / Western LandscapeInk, graphite and sepia wash. 7 5/8 x 11 7/8 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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13 Express Train (Going West)c. 1930–34, Lithographic crayon. 5 x 11 inchesInitialed lower right “B”

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 scribble-scrabble line. —Dr. Henry Adams

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14 Camp Wagon, High Country Valleyc. 1965, Ink wash and graphite. 11 3/4 x 15 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

15 Three Cacti and Mountain1958, Ink wash and gouache. 9 1/2 x 13 1/4 inchesSigned and dated lower right “Benton ‘58”

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16 Apache Indianc. 1935–40, Watercolor and ink. 11 x 8 1/2 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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17 The New PonyInk, graphite and sepia wash. 9 x 16 inchesSigned lower middle “Benton”

18 Man with Scythec. 1930–35, Graphite and colored pencil. 9 x 13 3/4 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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20 Threshingc. 1935, Graphite. 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 inchesUnsigned

19 Back View Man with ScytheInk and graphite. 9 1/4 x 9 1/2 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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21 Running Horses and other Sketchesc. 1930, Ink. 11 1/8 x 14 1/2 inchesSigned lower middle “Benton”

22 Country Schoolroom with Stovec. 1935–40, Ink wash and graphite. 11 1/4 x 8 5/8 inchesSigned 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 Pickersc. 1935, Graphite. 12 x 15 inchesSigned and titled lower middle “Cotton Pickers — Benton”

24 Natchez, Mississippic. 1935, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 7 x 9 1/4 inchesSigned 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 inchesSigned 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 LincoLnWritten By Virginia S. Eifert; Illustrated by Thomas Hart Benton

26 Young Abe Lincolnc. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache. 12 7/8 x 8 1/2 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”

i l l u s t r at e d Frontispiece illustration for Virginia S. Eifert’s

“Three Rivers South: The Story of Young Abe Lincoln”

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27 ( A B O V E ) Foot on the log, wind in his hair, big hands waving the mallet for emphasis, Abe’d go on for twenty minutes from memoryc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 4

28 ( T O P R I G H T ) In the surging, boiling, whirling current of the flooding Sangamon, the canoe was at the mercy of the tossing brown waterc. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 5

29 ( B O T T O M R I G H T ) The boys yelled and the dogs barked and the hogs squealed and trumpeted as they charged desperatelyc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned “Benton” lower left and initialed “B.” lower righti l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 36

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30 ( T O P L E F T ) Abe tried to stop the big boat before she was wrecked. She stopped all right, stopped with a sickening crunch. c. 1953, Ink, ink wash and gouache. 10 3/4 x 7 3/16 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 37

31 ( B O T T O M L E F T ) Abe leaped like a long-legged panther in the direction of the sound, and just outside the circle of light…he ran into a manc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 68

32 ( A B O V E ) “Well sir,” Abe continued, “when he heard all the racket and smelled…brimstone…the chief walked out on the cliff topc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 69

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33 ( A B O V E ) Abe nosed the flatboat toward the shore and she settled into a berth on the crowded bustling St. Louis water frontc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned and initialed lower left “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 100

3 4 ( T O P R I G H T ) “My pappy say you-all should come up to the house,” the girl repeated patiently. “Y’ll must be fair soaked.”c. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 3/16 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 132

35 ( B O T T O M R I G H T ) It was a glorious bright day when Abe Lincoln tied up the flatboat at the Natchez water front, along Silver Streetc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned and initialed lower right “Benton B.”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 133

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36 ( L E F T ) Denton Offutt at once became the man of business. He brushed off his best coat, buffed his hat, shined his boots and bustled offc. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”i l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 164

37 ( R I G H T ) A month in the old city which was New Orleans in 1831 could hardly be dull to Abe and Jack, sallying out to explorec. 1953, Ink and ink wash. 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inchesSigned “Benton” lower left and initialed “B.” lower righti l l u s t r at e d Eifert, Page 165

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38 Steam Generatorc. 1937, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inchesSigned and dated lower right “Benton”

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39 Judge Sturgis Study1924, Ink and graphite. 8 x 5 inchesTitled, 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 Sturgis1924, Watercolor. 22 1/4 x 15 inchesSigned 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 inchesSigned 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 Tugboatc. 1940, Ink, graphite and sepia wash. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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

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4 4 Cliffs Above Eagle Creek1965, Ink wash, graphite and gouache. 11 x 13 3/4 inchesTitled lower middle “Cliffs above Eagle Creek”Signed and dated lower right “Benton 65”

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4 6 Three Trees Before Bluff near Water ( B O T T O M R I G H T )

Ink wash and graphite. 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”i l l u s t r at e d “An Artist in America” by Thomas Hart Benton

45 Landscape with Figure on Rocks above Waterfall ( A B O V E )

c. 1940–50, Graphite and sepia. 16 1/2 x 15 5/8 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”

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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

sTrike (WAITING on verso)

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47 Strike1933, Double-sided oil on tin. 13 1/4 x 15 3/8 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”Waiting (on verso) 8 x 7 1/2 inchesp r o v e n a n c e Thomas Hart Benton Estate

e x h i b i t i o n s

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 Sketchc. 1954, Graphite. 16 1/2 x 12 3/4 inchesSigned lower middle “Benton”

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

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5 0 The Goat Girl, Mabel Look ( S T U D Y F O R M a b e l a n d t h e G o at )

1961, Graphite. 16 1/2 x 12 1/4 inchesSigned 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 T U D Y F O R T H E L I N C O L N U N I V E R S I T Y M U R A L )

c. 1954, Graphite. 8 3/8 x 6 1/2 inchesSigned and annotated lower right “Benton Lincoln Mural”

52 Old Nick Nickens, Left-Handed Fiddler1974, Graphite. 13 3/4 x 11 inchesSigned 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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5 4 Seated Woman with Veil on Hatc. 1930, Graphite. 12 1/4 x 8 1/2 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

53 Locomotive beside LogsGraphite. 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inchesSigned lower middle “Benton”

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55 Brooklyn Bridge, New Yorkc. 1923–24, Graphite. 8 x 5 inchesi 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 inchesSigned and dated lower right “Benton ‘24”

57 Locomotive (Moving to the Left)1926, Graphite. 9 3/8 x 6 3/4 inchesSigned 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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h a r b o r s c e n e 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

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58 Harbor Scene, Norfolk1915, Watercolor. 10 x 15 inchesSigned lower left “Benton”

e x h i b i t i o n s

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 Politicsc. 1955–64, Graphite. 14 x 17 inchesi 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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6 0 A Drink of Water1937, Lithograph. 14 1/2 x 10 inches

61 Edge of Town1938, Lithograph. 9 x 10 3/4 inches

62 Frankie and Johnnie1936, Lithograph. 16 2/8 x 22 1/8 inches

63 Gateside Conversation1946, Lithograph. 9 7/8 x 14 inches

6 4 Goin’ Home1937, Lithograph. 9 3/8 x 12 inches

65 Haystack1938, Lithograph. 10 3/8 x 12 7/8 inches

6 6 Hymn Singer1950, Lithograph. 16 x 12 3/8 inches

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

6 8 Island Hay1945, Lithograph. 10 x 12 5/8 inches

69 Loading Corn1945, Lithograph. 10 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches

70 Mr. President1971, Lithograph. 8 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

71 Night Firing1943, Lithograph. 13 1/8 x 8 3/4 inches

72 Photographing the Bull1950, Lithograph. 11 15/16 x 16 inches

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

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

75 Shallow Creek1939, Lithograph. 14 1/4 x 9 5/16 inches

76 Slow Train Through Arkansas1941, Lithograph. 10 x 12 3/4 inches

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

78 Sunday Morning1939, Lithograph. 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches

79 Ten Pound Hammer1967, Lithograph. 14 1/2 x 10 inches

8 0 The Farmer’s Daughter1944, Lithograph. 13 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches

81 Threshing1941, Lithograph. 9 1/4 x 14 inches

Thomas harT benTon LiThograPhs

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82 Black Man PullingWatercolor and oil crayon. 17 3/4 x 13 1/4 inchesSigned lower right “Benton”

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83 g r an t wo o d Corn Cob Chandelierc. 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 inchesSigned 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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8 5 Approaching Storm1940, Lithograph. 11 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches

8 6 December Afternoon1940, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches

87 Family Doctor1940, Lithograph. 10 x 11 7/8 inches

8 8 February1940, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches

8 9 March1939, Lithograph. 8 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches

9 0 Midnight Alarm1939, Lithograph. 11 7/8 x 7 inches

91 Seed Time and Harvest1937, Lithograph. 7 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches

92 Shrine Quartet1939, Lithograph. 8 x 11 7/8 inches

93 Vegetables1939, hand-colored lithograph. 8 1/2 x 11 inches

9 4 Wild Flowers1939, hand-colored lithograph. 7 x 10 inches

granT WooD LiThograPhs

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conTenTs

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

The History of Water

Man at Soda Fountain

Girl at Soda Fountain

a r t s o f l i f e i n a m e r i c a

Diner at a Lunch Counter

Hoodlum (Bootlegger)

Radio Soprano

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

Jim’s Catfish, Huck Finn Panel

Missouri Man (Jesse James)

l i f e m a g a z i n e

Nazi Upheaval in Michigan

UAWA Picnic

Western Town with Road to Mountain

American Hotel / Western Landscape

Express Train (Going West)

Back View, Man with Scythe

Threshing

The New Pony

Man with Scythe

Camp Wagon, High Country Valley

Three Cacti and Mountain

Apache Indian

pa g e

2

3

4

7

8

9

10

11

13

13

14

14

15

16

16

17

17

18

19

19

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pa g e

20

20

21

21

22

23-30

31

32-33

34

35

35

36

37

37

39

40

40

41

Cotton Pickers

Natchez, Mississippi

Running Horses

Country Schoolroom

Steamboat “City of Memphis”

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 a n d s t u d y

Flood “Mississippi Backwater”

Freighter at Dockside

Houseboats with other Boats

Landscape with Figure on Rocks

Cliffs Above Eagle Creek

Three Trees before Bluff near Water

s t r i k e

k e n t u c k i a n

Kentuckian Sketch

Study of boy for “The Kentuckian”

m a b e l a n d t h e g o at

The Goat Girl, Mabel Look

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pa g e

42

42

43

43

44

45

45

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54-57

Negro Boy (Study for Lincoln Mural)

Old Nick Nickens

Locomotive beside Logs

Seated Woman with Veil

e a r ly w o r k

Brooklyn Bridge

Construction Scene

Locomotive (Moving to the Left)

h a r b o r s c e n e

Study for County Politics

b e n t o n l i t h o g r a p h s

Black Man Pulling

g r a n t w o o d

Corn Cob Chandelier

Untitled (Autumn Landscape with Sumac)

g r a n t w o o d l i t h o g r a p h s

c o n t e n t s

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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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g a l l e r y

5733 South 34th Street, Suite 300

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

d i r e c t o r

Buck Kiechel

[email protected]

Vivian Kiechel

[email protected]

b a c k c o v e r i m a g e Young Abe Lincoln

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