Thomas Hart Benton 1889 - 1975

Henry de Villiers Williams, Jr. (acquired from the artist circa 1974; sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 22, 1996, lot 55, illustrated)
Private Collection, Villanova, Pennsylvania (acquired from the above sale)
By descent to the present owners

This work is in excellent condition. Under UV: there is no apparent inpainting. This painting may benefit from a light cleaning.
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Born in Neosho, Missouri, Thomas Hart Benton Benton found great success in the late 1920s and 1930s as one of the country’s foremost proponents of the Regionalist movement. Along with other painters such as Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, Benton took his deepest inspiration from the imagery of daily life in the Midwestern United States. The Regionalist mentality deliberately sought to reject European models and antecedents, instead striving for the creation of an art that was overtly American in character. Although the Regionalists interpreted this idea in a diverse array of styles, they were united by a view of the rural landscape as an essential component of the American identity.

An avid outdoorsman, Benton took canoe and float trips on the picturesque rivers that wind through the Ozark Mountains from Southern Missouri into Arkansas. The present work was painted along the Current River in southwestern Missouri. It is a study for Benton's 1961 work, Current River, Missouri Ozarks (Private Collection, Kansas City, Missouri). As Matthew Baigell writes, "In his easel paintings completed since the war, Benton has explored older themes and styles, but even the casual observer will notice changes. The energies that he formerly channeled into defining an American style and spirit have been directed toward a profound appreciation of his subject matter...In many ways, though, his more remarkable achievements are the landscapes of this period. In these it would appear that Benton's overwhelming love for America found its true outlet in the streams, hills and mountains of the country, populated by people unsuspectingly living out their time, quietly enjoying themselves, living easily on the land, celebrating nothing more than their existence" (Thomas Hart Benton, New York, 1973, p. 183).