Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
American, 1889-1975
Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri on April 15, 1889. Even as a boy, he was no stranger to the "art of the deal" or to the smoke-filled rooms in which such deals were often consummated. His grandfather had been Missouri's first United States Senator and served in Washington for thirty years. His father, Maecenas Benton, was United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri under Cleveland and served in the United States House of Representatives during the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administrations. Benton's brother, Nat, was prosecutor for Greene County, Missouri, during the 1930s.
As soon as he could walk, Benton traveled with his father on political tours. There he learned the arts of chewing and smoking, and while the men were involved in their heated discussions, Benton delighted in finding new cream colored wallpaper on the staircase wall, at the age of six or seven, and drew in charcoal his first mural, a long multi-car freight train.
As soon as he was eighteen, even though his father wanted him to study law, Benton left for Chicago where he studied at the Art Institute during the years 1907 and 1908. He continued his studies in Paris, where he learned delicious wickedness, aesthetic and otherwise.
Once back home, he became the leader of the Regionalist School, the most theatrical and gifted of the 1930s muralists and as Harry Truman described him,"the best damned painter in America."
Detractors said that Benton was "a fascist, a communist, a racist and a bigot"; the ingenious structure, powerful use of modeling and scale and the high-colored humanity of the murals and easel paintings are retort enough. He was a dark, active dynamo, only 5 ft., 3 1/2 in. tall. He was outspoken, open, charmingly profane; he had a great mane of hair and a face the texture of oak bark. He wore rumpled corduroy and flannel, and walked with the unsteady swagger of a sailor just ashore. He poured a salwart drink, chewed on small black cigars and spat in the fire.
Benton was once described as the "churlish dean of regionalist art." If you listened to a variety of art authorities, you would find them equally divided between Harry Truman's assessment of Benton as "the best damned painter in America" and Hilton Kramer who proclaimed Benton "a failed artist."
The East Coast art establishment tended to regard Benton as memorable for one reason only: he was the teacher of Jackson Pollock.
Benton was married in 1922 to Rita, a gregarious Italian lady, and they had a daughter and a son. At the height of his fame in the 1940s, Benton bungled the buy-out he was offered by Walt Disney and went his own way, completing his last mural in 1975 in acrylics the year of his death.
He died in 1975.(Biography provided by Gallery of the Masters)
to
4
4
5
1
7
1
3
5
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
6
7
3
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
8
5
3
26
139
132
130
113
8
1
Artist: Thomas Hart Benton
Kansas Farmyard / Missouri Farmyard
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Santa Monica, CA
THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975)
MISSOURI FARMYARD, 1936 (Fath 10) AKA KANSAS FARMYARD
Lithograph as published by Associated American Artists. Edition 250. Signed in pencil and in the...
Category
1930s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Gateside Conversation, 1940s Original Signed Lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Denver, CO
'Gateside Conversation' is an original signed lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) from 1946. Singed by the artist in the lower right margin and titled verso. Portrays a figu...
Category
1940s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
Nebraska Evening
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in London, GB
A fine impression with good margins published by Associated American Artists.
Category
1940s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Down the River
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in London, GB
A fine impression of this popular Benton image with good margins.
Category
1930s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Haystack
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in London, GB
A fine impression of this very popular image with full margins (smaller on top and bottom) published by Associated American Artists.
Category
1930s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Prodigal Son
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in London, GB
A fine impression with full margins published by Associated American Artists with their information label present - pictured in Art and Popular Religion in Evangelical America, 1815-...
Category
1930s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Threshing' — 1940s American Regionalism
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Thomas Hart Benton, 'Threshing', lithograph, 1941, edition 250, Fath 48. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white, wove paper, with full margins (1 3/8 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition. Published by Associated American Artists. Image size 9 5/16 x 13 13/16 inches (237 x 351 mm); sheet size 12 1/2 x 16 5/8 inches (318 x 422 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed.
Impressions of this work are held in the following museum collections: Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, High Museum of Art, McNay Art Museum, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“Benton’s idiom was essentially political and rhetorical, the painterly equivalent of the country stump speeches that were a Benton family tradition. The artist vividly recalled accompanying his father, Maecenas E. Benton — a four-term U.S. congressman, on campaigns through rural Missouri. Young Tom Benton grew up with an instinct for constituencies that led him to assess art on the basis of its audience appeal. His own art, after the experiments with abstraction, was high-spirited entertainment designed to catch and hold an audience with a political message neatly bracketed between humor and local color.” —Elizabeth Broun “Thomas Hart Benton: A Politician in Art,” Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Spring 1987, p. 61
Born in 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, Benton spent much of his childhood and adolescence in Washington, D.C., where his lawyer father, Maecenas Eason Benton, served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1897 to 1905. Hoping to groom him for a political career, Benton’s father sent him to Western Military Academy. After nearly two years at the academy, Benton convinced his mother to support him through two years at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by two more years at the Academie Julian in Paris.
Benton returned to America in 1912 and moved to New York to pursue his artistic career. One of his first jobs was painting sets for silent movies, which were being produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Benton credits this experience with giving him the skills he needed to make his large-scale murals.
When World War I broke out, Benton joined the Navy. Stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, he was assigned to create drawings of the camouflaged ships arriving at Norfolk Naval Station. The renderings were used to identify vessels should they be lost in battle. Benton credited being a ‘camofleur’ as having a profound impact on his career. “When I came out of the Navy after the First World War,” he said, “I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be just a studio painter, a pattern maker in the fashion then dominating the art world–as it still does. I began to think of returning to the painting of subjects, subjects with meanings, which people, in general, might be interested in.”
While developing his ‘regionalist’ vision, Benton also taught art, first at a city-supported school and then at The Art Students League (1926–1935). One of his students was a young Jackson Pollock, who looked upon Benton as a mentor and a father figure. In 1930, Benton was commissioned to paint a mural for the New School for Social Research. The ‘America Today’ mural, now on permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was followed by many more commissions as Benton’s work gained acclaim.
The Regionalist Movement gained popularity during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Painters, including Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry, rejected modernist European influences preferring to depict realistic images of small-town and rural life—reassuring images of the American heartland during a period of upheaval. Time Magazine called Benton 'the most virile of U.S. painters of the U.S. Scene,' featuring his self-portrait on the cover of a 1934 issue that included a story about 'The Birth of Regionalism.'
In 1935, Benton left New York and moved back to Missouri, where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. Benton’s outspoken criticism of modern art, art critics, and political views alienated him from many influencers in political and art scenes. While remaining true to his beliefs, Benton continued to create murals, paintings, and prints of some of the most enduring images of American life. The dramatic and engaging qualities of Benton’s paintings and murals attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He was hired to create illustrations and posters for films, including his famous lithographs for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ produced by Twentieth Century Fox.
Benton’s work can be found at the Art Institute of Chicago, High Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Library of Congress, McNay Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Truman Library and many other museums and galleries across the US. He was elected to the National Academy of Design, has illustrated many books, authored his autobiography, and is the subject of ‘Thomas Hart Benton,’ a documentary by Ken Burns.
Category
1940s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
PLOUGHING IT UNDER
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Santa Monica, CA
THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975)
PLOUGHING IT UNDER (aka Ploughing) 1934 (Fath 8)
Original lithograph, signed in pencil. Edition of 250 as published by Associated American Artists (AA...
Category
1930s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Related Items
SINGLIN' OUT Signed Lithograph, American Cowboy Roping Horses, Rocky Mountains
By Conrad Schwiering 1
Located in Union City, NJ
SINGLIN' OUT by the American Western artist Conrad Schwiering, is a hand drawn limited edition lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques o...
Category
1980s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Prehistoric Sighting Pacific Ocean (Goblin Sharks?)
Located in New Orleans, LA
This is a single color lithograph created by Matthew Roath as part of Tamarind Institute PTP. The Collaborating printer isAndreea Cristina Mateescu....
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Original "The Ships Are Coming" vintage American poster with an Eagle.
By James Henry Daugherty
Located in Spokane, WA
Original: THE SHIPS ARE COMING vintage poster. Artist: James H. Daugherty (1889-1974)
Publisher: U.S. Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation, Publication Section, Philadelphia, 1917.
Poster showing a giant eagle...
Category
1910s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
James Henry DaughertyOriginal "The Ships Are Coming" vintage American poster with an Eagle., 1917-18
H 30 in W 20 in D 0.05 in
To the Sea
By Jack Coughlin 1
Located in New Orleans, LA
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Jack Coughlin studied at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and the Art Students League of New York. He is b...
Category
1960s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Waiting, Framed Print by Will Barnet
By Will Barnet
Located in Long Island City, NY
Waiting from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio
Will Barnet, American (1911–2012)
Date: 1975
Offset Lithograph (unsigned)
Image Size: 11.25 x 11 inches
Size: 17 x 14 in. (43.18 x 35.56 ...
Category
1970s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Offset, Lithograph
Original 'Bundesbahn durch das Gastliches Deutschland' vintage poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Linen-backed original German / Germany culinary map in excellent condition. MIT DER DEUTSCHEN BUNDESBAHN DURCH DAS GASTLICHE DEUTSCHLAND. Mit der Deutschen Bundesbahn durch das Gastliche Deutschland (With Deutsche Bundesbahn through Hospitable Germany).
A map of Germany showing all the food and wine features in various regions and cities. If you go to Germany and want to find the origins of foods, this will lead you to the correct city. From wine, bread, fish, cookies, spat, prezels, pork, bier, french...
Category
1950s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
H 32.5 in W 23.5 in D 0.05 in
Horses in the Moonlight, Lithograph by Lebadang
By Hoi Lebadang
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Lebadang, Vietnamese (1922 - 2015)
Title: Horses in Moonlight
Year: circa 1975
Medium: Lithograph, signed in pencil
Edition: Epreuve d'Artiste
Size: 25.25 x 19.5 in. (64.14 x...
Category
1970s Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Original Egypt Fly TWA Airlines vintage poster
By David Klein
Located in Spokane, WA
Original Egypt Fly TWA vintage poster. Artist: David Klein. Linen backed in excellent condition, grade A. Ready to frame. A camel head dominates the image with a very colorful tassel-decorated harness. Beautifully contrasting with the clear blue sky and the TWA airplane.
David Klein does not sign the poster. It was produced during the Israeli and Egyptian conflict going on at the time. He produced the artwork for the posters, but all posters going to Egypt remained unsigned.
TWA (Trans World Airlines) was formed in 1924 as Transcontinental & Western Air. The airline's first route was from New York to Los Angeles, followed by multiple National routes. The airline expanded to serve Europe, the Middle East, and Asia after WWII when the company was under Howard Hughes's owner's control from 1939 until 1961. Hughes was a dominant force in expanding and promoting his company's routes. The economy was vastly improving, and travel by air for business and pleasure increased, too. Posters were a crucial element in promoting this form of travel and TWA. The airline started a decline in the 1970s that ended up in a third bankruptcy that caused its acquisition by American Airlines in 2001. The airline operated in 132 destinations worldwide and had a fleet size of 190.
This Rome poster was created by the gifted American artist David Klein (1918 -2005), and depicts a member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in the center wearing the iconic yellow, blue, and red uniform. The Guard is playing a drum that has the pontifical emblem. In the background, we see a representation of the ancient Roman Coliseum and the Baroque Saint...
Category
1960s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Offset
Arc de Triomphe in Snow (Napoleon's Triumphal Arch)
By Ellison Hoover
Located in Storrs, CT
Arc de Triomphe in Snow (Napoleon's Triumphal Arch). c. 1930. Lithograph printed in grey ink. 11 1/4 x 9 7/16 (sheet 16 x 12). A tonal impression printe...
Category
1930s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Landscape with Deer Herds
By Hoi Lebadang
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Landscape with Deer Herds" c.1970 is an original color lithograph by French/Vietnamese artist Hoi Lebadang, 1922-2015. It is hand sig...
Category
Late 20th Century Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Original Chicago Fly TWA vintage travel poster
By David Klein
Located in Spokane, WA
Original vintage travel poster: Chicago - Fly TWA. UP UP and Away Trans World Airline. Artist: David Klein. Size 25" x 40" Dated 1960's. ...
Category
1960s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Offset
Original New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival vintage poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Original New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival original 1983 vintage poster. Archival linen backed in very good condition, ready to frame. ...
Category
1980s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Offset
Previously Available Items
Morning Train or Soldier's Farewell - 1940s Lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Denver, CO
'Morning Train or Soldier's Farewell' is a lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton from 1943. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials measuring 20 ¾ x 24 ½ inches; image size is 9 ¼ x 13 ½ inches.
Print is in good condition, please contact us for a detailed condition report.
About the Artist:
Born Missouri, 1889
Died Missouri, 1975
Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri and named for a great uncle and early United States Senator. His father, Colonel M.E. Benton was a Congressman for eight years. The family lived in Washington D.C. in the winter and Neosho in the summer. Determined to pursue his talent he later said he had to run away from home to become an artist.
His draftsman experience in the Navy from 1918-19 led to his American Scene realist style, beginning with a mural titled The American Historical Epic made for the New School of Social Research in New York City. This work earned much respect for mural painting and was key to the support of artists in the Federal Art Projects.
His murals at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City are major American Scene murals, and in 1957 he was commissioned by Robert Moses, chairman of the board of the Power Authority of the State of New York, to paint a mural for the Power Authority at Massena. For this work at the site, he did extensive research on the theme which was the Canadian expedition of Jacques Cartier in the mid-1500s.
During the early part of his career he lived in New York City where he taught at the Art Students League and became a major influence on the style of gestural painter, Jackson Pollock. But increasingly Benton grew to believe that art should express one’s surroundings rather than abstract ideas and that the ordinary person most exemplified American life. He inherited many of these ideas from his populist father who served as a Congressman from Missouri from 1897 to 1905.
In 1935, he established a studio in Kansas City where he painted for the next forty years until his death at age 85. Fellow Missourian and former US President...
Category
1940s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
Thomas Hart BentonMorning Train or Soldier's Farewell - 1940s Lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton, 1943
H 20.75 in W 24.5 in D 1 in
WHITE CALF - 1945
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Pembroke Pines, FL
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)
White Calf - 1945
Lithograph on paper, signed in pencil lower right
From the edition of 250.
Published by Associated American Artists, New York, with f...
Category
1940s Contemporary Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Threshing
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in New York, NY
A superb, strong impression of this lithograph. The the edition of 250. Signed in pencil by Benton, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists...
Category
1940s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Planting' also 'Spring Plowing' — 1930s American Regionalism
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Thomas Hart Benton, 'Planting (Spring Plowing)', lithograph, 1939, edition 250, Fath 28. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower right. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove paper, the full sheet with margins (7/8 to 1 13/16 inches), in excellent condition. Published by Associated American Artists. Image size 9 7/8 x 12 9/16 inches (251 x 319 mm); sheet size 11 3/4 x 15 7/8 inches (298 x 403 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, framed.
Impressions of this work are held in the following museum collections: Figge Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Museum of Florida History, McNay Art Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“Benton’s idiom was essentially political and rhetorical, the painterly equivalent of the country stump speeches that were a Benton family tradition. The artist vividly recalled accompanying his father, Maecenas E. Benton — a four-term U.S. congressman, on campaigns through rural Missouri. Young Tom Benton grew up with an instinct for constituencies that led him to assess art on the basis of its audience appeal. His own art, after the experiments with abstraction, was high-spirited entertainment designed to catch and hold an audience with a political message neatly bracketed between humor and local color.” —Elizabeth Broun “Thomas Hart Benton: A Politician in Art,” Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Spring 1987, p. 61
Born in 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, Benton spent much of his childhood and adolescence in Washington, D.C., where his lawyer father, Maecenas Eason Benton, served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1897 to 1905. Hoping to groom him for a political career, Benton’s father sent him to Western Military Academy. After nearly two years at the academy, Benton convinced his mother to support him through two years at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by two more years at the Academie Julian in Paris.
Benton returned to America in 1912 and moved to New York to pursue his artistic career. One of his first jobs was painting sets for silent movies, which were being produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Benton credits this experience with giving him the skills he needed to make his large-scale murals.
When World War I broke out, Benton joined the Navy. Stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, he was assigned to create drawings of the camouflaged ships arriving at Norfolk Naval Station. The renderings were used to identify vessels should they be lost in battle. Benton credited being a ‘camofleur’ as having a profound impact on his career. “When I came out of the Navy after the First World War,” he said, “I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be just a studio painter, a pattern maker in the fashion then dominating the art world–as it still does. I began to think of returning to the painting of subjects, subjects with meanings, which people, in general, might be interested in.”
While developing his ‘regionalist’ vision, Benton also taught art, first at a city-supported school and then at The Art Students League (1926–1935). One of his students was a young Jackson Pollock, who looked upon Benton as a mentor and a father figure. In 1930, Benton was commissioned to paint a mural for the New School for Social Research. The ‘America Today’ mural, now on permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was followed by many more commissions as Benton’s work gained acclaim.
The Regionalist Movement gained popularity during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Painters, including Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry, rejected modernist European influences preferring to depict realistic images of small-town and rural life—reassuring images of the American heartland during a period of upheaval. Time Magazine called Benton 'the most virile of U.S. painters of the U.S. Scene,' featuring his self-portrait on the cover of a 1934 issue that included a story about 'The Birth of Regionalism.'
In 1935, Benton left New York and moved back to Missouri, where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. Benton’s outspoken criticism of modern art, art critics, and political views alienated him from many influencers in political and art scenes. While remaining true to his beliefs, Benton continued to create murals, paintings, and prints of some of the most enduring images of American life. The dramatic and engaging qualities of Benton’s paintings and murals attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He was hired to create illustrations and posters for films, including his famous lithographs for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ produced by Twentieth Century Fox.
Benton’s work can be found at the Art Institute of Chicago, High Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Library of Congress, McNay Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Truman Library and many other museums and galleries across the US. He was elected to the National Academy of Design, has illustrated many books, authored his autobiography, and is the subject of ‘Thomas Hart Benton,’ a documentary by Ken Burns.
Category
1930s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Goin' Home' — 1930s American Regionalism
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Thomas Hart Benton, 'Goin' Home', lithograph, 1937, edition 250, Fath 14. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower right. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white, wove paper, the full sheet with margins (1 1/4 to 2 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Published by Associated American Artists. Image size 9 7/16 x 11 7/8 inches (240 x 302 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 16 inches (302 x 406 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed.
Impressions of this work are held in the following museum collections: Figge Art Museum, Georgetown University Art Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
“Benton’s idiom was essentially political and rhetorical, the painterly equivalent of the country stump speeches that were a Benton family tradition. The artist vividly recalled accompanying his father, Maecenas E. Benton — a four-term U.S. congressman, on campaigns through rural Missouri. Young Tom Benton grew up with an instinct for constituencies that led him to assess art on the basis of its audience appeal. His own art, after the experiments with abstraction, was high-spirited entertainment designed to catch and hold an audience with a political message neatly bracketed between humor and local color.” —Elizabeth Broun “Thomas Hart Benton: A Politician in Art,” Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Spring 1987, p. 61
Born in 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, Benton spent much of his childhood and adolescence in Washington, D.C., where his lawyer father, Maecenas Eason Benton, served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1897 to 1905. Hoping to groom him for a political career, Benton’s father sent him to Western Military Academy. After nearly two years at the academy, Benton convinced his mother to support him through two years at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by two more years at the Academie Julian in Paris.
Benton returned to America in 1912 and moved to New York to pursue his artistic career. One of his first jobs was painting sets for silent movies, which were being produced in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Benton credits this experience with giving him the skills he needed to make his large-scale murals.
When World War I broke out, Benton joined the Navy. Stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, he was assigned to create drawings of the camouflaged ships arriving at Norfolk Naval Station. The renderings were used to identify vessels should they be lost in battle. Benton credited being a ‘camofleur’ as having a profound impact on his career. “When I came out of the Navy after the First World War,” he said, “I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be just a studio painter, a pattern maker in the fashion then dominating the art world–as it still does. I began to think of returning to the painting of subjects, subjects with meanings, which people, in general, might be interested in.”
While developing his ‘regionalist’ vision, Benton also taught art, first at a city-supported school and then at The Art Students League (1926–1935). One of his students was a young Jackson Pollock, who looked upon Benton as a mentor and a father figure. In 1930, Benton was commissioned to paint a mural for the New School for Social Research. The ‘America Today’ mural, now on permanent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was followed by many more commissions as Benton’s work gained acclaim.
The Regionalist Movement gained popularity during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Painters, including Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry, rejected modernist European influences preferring to depict realistic images of small-town and rural life—reassuring images of the American heartland during a period of upheaval. Time Magazine called Benton 'the most virile of U.S. painters of the U.S. Scene,' featuring his self-portrait on the cover of a 1934 issue that included a story about 'The Birth of Regionalism.'
In 1935, Benton left New York and moved back to Missouri, where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. Benton’s outspoken criticism of modern art, art critics, and political views alienated him from many influencers in political and art scenes. While remaining true to his beliefs, Benton continued to create murals, paintings, and prints of some of the most enduring images of American life. The dramatic and engaging qualities of Benton’s paintings and murals attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He was hired to create illustrations and posters for films, including his famous lithographs for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ produced by Twentieth Century Fox.
Benton’s work can be found at the Art Institute of Chicago, High Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Library of Congress, McNay Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Truman Library and many other museums and galleries across the US. He was elected to the National Academy of Design, has illustrated many books, authored his autobiography, and is the subject of ‘Thomas Hart Benton,’ a documentary by Ken Burns.
Category
1930s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
THRESHING
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Santa Monica, CA
THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975)
THRESHING 1941 (Fath 48)
Lithograph, signed in pencil lower right and in the stone lower left of image. Image 9 3/8 x 13. From the Edition of 250 publ...
Category
1940s American Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Shallow Creek
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Shallow Creek (1939) By Thomas Hart Benton
Medium: Lithograph, pencil signed
A hand signed lithograph on paper from an edition of 250 created in 1939, complete with certificate of au...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Island Hay
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Missouri, MO
Edition of 250, published by Associated American Artists (Fath, 68).
Signed "Benton" in pencil l.r. and within the matrix
Image Size: 9 7/8 x 12 5/8 in. (25.0 x 32.0 cm)
Framed Size:...
Category
1940s American Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Cradling Wheat
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Washington, DC
Thomas Hart Benton Cradling Wheat
Artist: Thomas Hart Benton
Medium: Lithograph
Title: Cradling Wheat
Year: 1939
Edition Size: 250
Sheet Size: 11 7/8" x...
Category
1930s Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
PLANTING
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Santa Monica, CA
THOMAS HART BENTON
PLANTING 1939 (Fath 28)
Lithograph, edition of 250 as published by Associated American Artists.
9 7/8” x 12 5/8”. Excellent cond...
Category
1930s Modern Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
CRADLING WHEAT
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed by Artist. Lithograph on paper. Published by Associated American Artists. Fath 27. Image size 9.5 x 12 inches. Custom framed as pictured. Edition of 250. Artwork is i...
Category
1940s Contemporary Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
HAYSTACK
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed by Artist. Lithograph on paper. Published by Associated American Artists. Fath, 21. Image size 10.25 x 12.875 inches. Custom framed as pictured. Edition of 250. Artw...
Category
1940s Contemporary Thomas Hart Benton Landscape Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
Thomas Hart Benton landscape prints for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Thomas Hart Benton landscape prints available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Thomas Hart Benton in lithograph, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Thomas Hart Benton landscape prints, so small editions measuring 14 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Louis Lozowick, Adolf Dehn, and Millard Sheets. Thomas Hart Benton landscape prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,850 and tops out at $8,017, while the average work can sell for $7,963.