Both reader Meredith T. and emily request a post on the American painterThomas Hart Benton(1889 - 1975 ) , of whom emily said , " He was a spitfire!“ The agricultural harvest home focus of his 1947 painting " Achelous and Hercules" is fitting for mid - October , so today we ’ll take a look at the spitfire himself and his oeuvre .
1.With agreat - uncle , Thomas Hart Benton , who was one of the first two U.S. Senators from Missouri , and a sire , Maecenas E. Benton , who was a colonel and a four - fourth dimension Congressman , Thomas Hart Benton was look to enter the law or political sports stadium . or else , he dropped out of school at eld 15 but was then sent by his father to a military academy , from which he ran away to attend the Art Institute of Chicago .
2.Benton was hire to paint a mural , " Independence and the gap of the West,“ for the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence , Missouri . The commission trigger a life - long friendship between the former president and the artist . after , shortly before Truman ’s death , Benton paint a portrayal of his champion thatcaused Truman to comment that Benton was " the best damned Felis concolor in America . “
3.TIMEmagazine’sfirst colour cover , on December 24 , 1934 , featured Benton ’s self - portrait . The accompanyingcover story , " The U.S. Scene,“ discussed current American art , including Benton ’s and that of fellow Midwesterners Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry .
4.Benton taught at the Art Students League in New York , whereone of his students was Jackson Pollock , and at the Kansas City Art Institute . He was disregard from the Art Institute , though , after he depict the typical art museum as " a burial ground run by a pretty boy with frail wrists and a swing music in his gait . “ He also stated , " Do you need to know what ’s the topic with the fine art line of work in America ? It ’s the third sexual urge and the museums . “
5.According to oft - told stories , Benton died of heart loser in his studio apartment while he was reviewing his net mural , " The Sources of Country Music . “ As movie maker Ken Burns afterward remarked , " If nothing else , Thomas Hart Benton is a nether region of a well story . “
