Talk:Thomas Hart Benton (painter)

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Untitled

There is a dispute tag on the last section with reference to the discussion page but this seems to be missing. Should the tag be removed? RFB 05:46, 20 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed it. Still, the section's ill-fitted -- the article deserves expansion and detail. DavidOaks 02:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whereabouts of The Little Fisherman by Thomas Hart Benton

At the National Museum of American Arts, the lithograph of The Little Fisherman by Thomas Hart Benton is kept. Do any experts know where the original painting The Little Fisherman is? Does anyone know whether it is missing or not? If not, what museum it is kept in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.25.44.65 (talk) 20:28, 1 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

style

Someone who knows the good sources (as I do not!) needs to make a section on THB's style -- it's really distinctive; heard a college prof say in lecture (therefore not easily cited) that he is without antecedents and without followers. DavidOaks (talk) 16:12, 29 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We still need the section. I'm going over all of his murals right now (dumb copyright laws restrict the use of these images on Wikipedia, which means art education loses out due to lawyers) and several things immediately stand out: he depicted some of the most progressive, anti-racist, pro-women images I've ever seen in American art from the 1930s onwards. There's some incredibly risque and sexually suggestive panels in the America Today series that I've never seen from any other American artist at that time. Unfortunately, Benton was homophobic, and his progressivism only went so far for his time. Of course, given Benton's propensity for painting strong, half-naked, muscular men in all of his murals, one wonders what the true story really was. For someone who was said to dislike teh gayz, he sure loved naked men. Viriditas (talk) 00:19, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Editing for consistency

I have reorganized the article to have Benton's early life, education, marriage and career at the beginning, where it appears in most biographies. His combination of European academic training and WWI experience were formative in his artistic career. Am editing for context (supplying indication of historic periods) as well.Parkwells (talk) 15:04, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Personality

"Justin Wolff makes clear that Thomas Hart Benton had a difficult if not volcanic personality. Among the adjectives he uses to describe him are surly, belligerent, arrogant, pugnacious, combative, gruff, inflexible, cantankerous, argumentative, churlish, cruel, and blunt." -- Terry Hartle; Thomas Hart Benton: A Life; The Christian Science Monitor (Boston); May 21, 2012. -- Jo3sampl (talk) 12:48, 7 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Like every other artist in existence. Viriditas (talk) 01:07, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Book Illustrator

While he was of course best known as a muralist, I was disappointed not to find any info in the article about his work as a book illustrator. If anybody has good source material, please add a short section on that subject. Thanks! Cgingold (talk) 00:23, 12 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Benton illustrated We, the People: The Drama of America by Leo Huberman (Monthly Review Press, 1932, 1947,1964). From the jacket of the 1964 edition, "Originally published as a book for children by Harper & Brothers in 1932, We, the People was selected by a bookseller's committee as one of 200 books to be presented to President Roosevelt for the permanent library in the White House.... Later, rewritten for adults, We, the People beame a choice of the Left Book Club in England in 1940; then, in a new and revised edition published in 1947, it was chosen as a selection of the Book Find Club. In their American Heritage Issue, the eidtors of Life selected it as one of the six outstanding books on the American past.... The vigorous reality of We, the People is projected by the jacket and end-paper design, and 58 text illustrations by Thomas Hart Benton." Jcobach (talk) 04:23, 19 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

Thomas Hart Benton - Achelous and Hercules - Smithsonian.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 20:07, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]