About the Artist

(1889-1975) "The son of a U.S. Congressman and the grandson of a U.S. Senator, it is no surprise that Thomas Hart Benton was influenced by American politics and the American scene. He was born in Neosho, Missouri in 1889, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Paris to study at the Academie Julian for three years. After working as a naval draftsman in World War I, Benton returned to New York and started capturing the American scene on his canvases, a movement that would later be called "Regionalism." Benton’s work shows elements of the Synchronist movement that advocated that art of form through color as well as the influence of Michelangelo and El Greco with his statuesque figures. Benton and his wife moved to Kansas City in 1935 (where Benton taught his most famous pupil, Jackson Pollock)." Excerpted from www.AskArt.com but submitted by a representative of the Columbus Museum