American Art

American Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 81. THOMAS HART BENTON | STUDY FROM NATURE (STUDY FOR 'THE WHITE HORSE BY THE GATE').

Property from the Collection of Senator William Benton, Sold by the Estate of Helen Boley

THOMAS HART BENTON | STUDY FROM NATURE (STUDY FOR 'THE WHITE HORSE BY THE GATE')

Auction Closed

September 17, 04:16 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Collection of Senator William Benton, Sold by the Estate of Helen Boley

THOMAS HART BENTON

1889 - 1975

STUDY FROM NATURE (STUDY FOR 'THE WHITE HORSE BY THE GATE')


signed Benton and dated 55 (lower right)

tempera en grisaille on paper

14 ½ by 21 ¾ inches

(36.8 by 55.2 cm)


This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation. Committee Members: Dr. Henry Adams, Jessie Benton, Anthony Benton Gude, Andrew Thompson and Michael Owen.

Senator William Benton, New York and Southport, Connecticut, by 1970

Helen Boley, Madison, Wisconsin, 1973 (his daughter, by descent)

In the 1950s and 1960s, Thomas Hart Benton set out to explore the American West, traveling to the Great Plains, the Grand Tetons, and the Rocky Mountains. Benton referred to these later landscapes as “grand scenery,” all of which show the influence of the artist's longstanding relationship with cinema. These western travels inspired him to explore the visual vocabulary of popular Hollywood Westerns - the rich saturation and colorful palette he began to employ recall the bold tones of these Technicolor films. A study for The White Horse, the present work is likely a depiction of the expansive rugged landscape of Utah's ranchlands.