About Thomas Hart Benton
Self-Portrait, 1974 (Painting)
Thomas Hart Benton
Born: April 15, 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, son of Maecenus Eason Benton and Elizabeth Wise Benton
Died: January 19, 1975 in Kansas City, Missouri while finishing a large mural for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee
Thomas Hart Benton was born into political aristocracy, and though he lived a life of privilege, Benton was most comfortable finding himself within the working-class communities of rural America. He found his position as the pre-eminent American Regionalism artist, creating iconic works of art representing rural America and the communities found in the Midwest.
Education & early years
Benton spent much of his childhood following his father to political rallies, providing a unique lens of rural Missouri. Instead of these tours leading Benton towards a political career journey (including being sent to The Western Military Academy), Benton rebelled against the notion of politics and aristocratic living, dropping out and using his mother’s support to become a cartoonist for the Joplin American newspaper of Joplin, Missouri.
Eventually looking for some direction and to advance his art career, Benton enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he spent two years continuing to push the boundaries of what his teachers expected of him. He worked with his teachers to convince his mother to support his move to Paris, where he believed that he would receive the training and artistic environment he required and deserved at the Académie Julian.
Artist training
Paris
In Paris, Benton worked to advance his artistic skills and brushed shoulders with other North American artists, including Diego Rivera and Stanton Macdonald-Wright. He stayed in Paris until his mother visited and discovered he was keeping a mistress. Benton immediately returned to the United States, spending a very short time back in Missouri before convincing his father to allow him to go to New York City.
New York
Benton continued painting once in New York. He found himself brushing shoulders with the whose-who of the New York art scene. As a teacher at the Art Students League of New York, Benton mentored many who would go on to have a career in the arts themselves, including Jackson Pollock.
WWI & WWII
Like many other men, Benton was quick to sign up to join the efforts of World War I. He was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, making drawings of shipyard work and life, and then later detailing the camouflage of ships entering the harbor.
During World War II, Benton created propaganda artwork to build morale in the United States against the horrors occurring in Europe.
Study for Prelude to Death (Oil on Board)
Rita Watering the Garden (Oil on Board)
Marriage
Following the war, Benton married Rita Piacenza in 1922. Though the Piacenza family was not supportive of Benton (they were convinced that an artist would never be able to financially support a family), the couple persevered and remained married for 53 years, with two children: Thomas Piacenza Benton (1926 - 2010) and Jessie Benton (born in 1939). In 1929, thanks to Rita, Tom got his first big commission. Rita talked the President of The New School in Greenwich Village, New York, into letting Tom paint nine mural panels, entitled America Today, for a boardroom at the school. Tom and Rita regularly enjoyed summers on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Just a few months after Tom’s death, Rita passed away on April 9, 1975.
Tetons (Watercolor - Mixed Medium & Gouache on Paper)
Returning to Midwest roots
After fighting against the aristocratic art scene of New York for more than a decade, Benton and his family relocated to the Midwest in 1935, settling into Missouri for the rest of his life. This return to the Midwest occurred because Benton accepted a commission to paint a mural for the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City and got a steady teaching job at the Kansas City Art Institute. Rita moved the family, Benton himself would have never left New York; however, the mural job would take several years to complete. Benton continued to create art, focusing on the rural workers and farmers. He spent some time as the head of the painting department at the Kansas City Art Institute before being forced out over some concerns regarding the focus of his artwork. During this time, Benton also wrote his first autobiography, entitled An Artist in America.
The Kansas City home and studio of the Bentons is preserved as a historic site by the state of Missouri, nearly untouched, and is open for tours.
Traveling the country
Benton found himself at odds with the New York City art scene’s fascination with modernism, doubling down on regionalism and establishing himself as one of the three most important American Regionalist artists (along with John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood). He traveled the country, focusing on the Midwest, spending months at a time meeting locals and finding ways to become a part of their community. During his travels he created thousands of sketches and ink wash drawings of what he observed, all of which would be used in the future as reference work for his murals.
Study of Apple of Discord (Oil on Metal)
A lifetime of art and hostilities
Benton’s most famous artworks are undoubtedly his murals, depicting the life of rural America and providing what Benton viewed as important, truth-driven focuses. Benton felt it was important to paint the best and worst parts of a region’s history. For example, in the Indiana mural, he included the Klu Klux Klan, much to the disappointment of his political commissioners.
Death
Thomas Hart Benton worked until his last moment, returning to his canvas after dinner to sign his last mural, The Sources of Country Music. He collapsed in his studio.