… was born on this date in 1889.
Named after his great-uncle, Missouri’s first senator, Thomas Hart Benton was born on 15 April 1889 in Neosho, Missouri, an Ozark town of 2,000 people. … In 1935 they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Benton directed the Art Institute until 1941, and where he contiued to live for the rest of his life. Albert Barnes, the Philadelphia collector, purchased some of his paintings, which raised the level of public success for the artist. Benton published his autobiography, An Artist in America, in 1937. He completed several murals in the midwest and on the east coast. Shortly before Harry Truman’s death in December 1972, Benton finished a portrait of the former President. Thomas Hart Benton died on 19 January 1975 in Kansas City, the day he completed a large mural for the Country Music Foundation of Nashville.
National Gallery of Art
Click on the painting to see larger version.
THB has some excellent murals in the rotunda of the capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Definitely worth a visit, if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Been there, done that. Official daughter Emily and I visited nine state capitols on a trip ten years ago — including the fine one in Jefferson City (not the easiest place to reach).