Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
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.to
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
19
938
320
228
191
1
1
Artist: Thomas Hart Benton
Planting (Spring Plowing) - Watercolor Landscape Painting with Figures, c. 1939
By Thomas Hart Benton
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Planting (Spring Plowing)", a vibrant watercolor and graphite on paper by Thomas Hart Benton, circa 1939-40, embodies the artist's signature Regionalist style. The work depicts a ru...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Graphite
Related Items
"Arquebusiers En Manoeuvre", After Marchetti
Located in Soquel, CA
Figurative landscape of four infantrymen in formation with their long arquebus guns by Adolphe Ancker (Dutch, 19th Century), after Marchetti. Signed and dated "Adolph Ancker 1888" lo...
Category
1880s American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil, Paper
Gold Rush Town Columbia, California Landscape by Lillie Heebner
By L. Heebner
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful figurative landscape watercolor painting of Columbia, California, showing two men in cowboy hats. By Lillie Eesther (Hillman) Heebner, a Monterey Bay area artist. Signed "L....
Category
1970s American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Laid Paper
$268 Sale Price
20% Off
H 15 in W 23 in D 0.1 in
Art Class on the Beach, Vintage Bay Area Coast Figural Landscape Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
A charming and colorful vintage coastal figurative landscape watercolor by Bay Area artist Sewall Smith (American, 1904-1988), c.1960s-1970s. This coastal scene depicts a plein air art class on the beach, with a group of figures busy working at their easels.
Signed "Sewall Smith" lower right.
Displayed in a new mat and vintage wood frame.
Image size: 10.5"H x 13.25"W
Edmund Sewall Smith, known as Sewall Smith or E. Sewall Smith, was a Berkeley, California based architect and artist known for watercolor paintings with nautical themes. A well known architect, Smith moved from Niagara Falls, New York to California in 1944. He flourished as an artist in the Bay Area in the 1970’s, exhibiting extensively in the East Bay throughout this time. Exhibitions included venues such as UC Berkeley, El Cerrito...
Category
1970s American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
$750
H 16.75 in W 20.75 in D 0.75 in
New Brighton Eucalyptus Landscape
By Les Anderson
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful watercolor of eucalyptus along New Brighton beach by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). From the estate of Les Anderson in Mon...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Archival Paper
Rowboat Outing - Fall Landscape with Rowboats in Watercolor on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
Rowboat Outing - Fall Landscape with Rowboats in Watercolor on Paper
Serene lakeside landscape by an unknown artist (20th Century). Two birch trees with bright yellow leaves are gro...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
$495
H 29.5 in W 23.5 in D 0.75 in
"Sesarma" Colorful Village Scene with Figures and Cow, Large-Scale Watercolor
By William Howard Knowles
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful large-scale figurative landscape watercolor of a vibrant village scene with several people and a cow amongst interesting architecture by William Howard Knowles (American, 1...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
$1,480 Sale Price
20% Off
H 32 in W 40 in D 1 in
19th Century Landscape -- Cape Ann, Gloucester Harbor
Located in Soquel, CA
Late 19th century delicate watercolor of the harbor at Cape Ann, Gloucester, Massachusetts depicting rocks in the calm water along with seagulls and sailboats in the distance, by 19th century artist and Reverend William George Puddefoot (American, 1842-1925). Signed "W.G. Puddefoot" lower left. Titled on verso, "Cape Ann Scenery / Near Gloucester, Sunset". Presented in a carved giltwood frame and off-white mat.
Reverend William George Puddefoot [1842-1925] (also known as W C Puddefoot) was an artist, traveler, lecturer and the field secretary for the American Home Missionary Society [1826-1893]. For his work, Puddefoot traveled all over the US, lecturing and doing missionary work, including: Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana Pennsylvania, California and Connecticut. He was known for being an extremely colorful character especially in his sermons and lectures. Puddefoot wrote the book Minute Man...
Category
Late 19th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
$1,080 Sale Price
20% Off
H 17 in W 23 in D 2 in
Vintage Coastal Figurative Landscape -- Walk on the Beach Watercolor
By Les Anderson
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful vintage watercolor of a coastal landscape with two figures walking along the beach by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). From the estate of Les Anderson i...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Archival Paper
$396 Sale Price
20% Off
H 15 in W 20 in D 1 in
California Gold Town, Small-Scale Vintage Figurative Landscape Watercolor
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming small-scale watercolor painting of figures sitting outside an old building in a small California gold town by R. E. Baker (American, 20th Century). The warm color palette of...
Category
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
$675
H 15 in W 14 in D 1 in
Mid Century Country House Landscape
By Rene Weaver
Located in Soquel, CA
Vivid watercolor of a country house and grove of trees in a rural landscape of rolling green hills, with farm animals in the distance, by California artist Rene Weaver (American, 189...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
On the Hunt - Early 20th Century Figurative Drawing with Dogs
Located in Soquel, CA
Figurative ink and wash drawing of beagles and a terrier leading the hunter to the quarry by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). Unsigned. Displayed in a rustic black and bro...
Category
1930s American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
$383 Sale Price
20% Off
H 21 in W 23.5 in D 1.25 in
Colon [Panama]
By Reynolds Beal
Located in New York, NY
Reynolds Beal painted this watercolor entitled “Colon” [Panama] in the spring of 1923. The paper size of this painting is 7 x 10" (17.7 x 25.3 cm). It is signed, titled, and dated ...
Category
Early 20th Century American Impressionist Thomas Hart Benton Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Pencil
![Colon [Panama]](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/reynolds-beal-paintings-colon-panama-for-sale/a_3312/1599757095431/Beal_Colon_Panama_97813_master.jpg?width=240 "chet reneson obituary")
Thomas Hart Benton figurative drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Thomas Hart Benton figurative drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs.