Thomas Hart Benton

« ANGLAIS : Thomas Hart Benton, was born on the fifteenth of April eighteen eightynine in Neosho and died on the nineteenth of January nineteen seventy five in Kansas City. He was an American painter known for his fluid style and his paintings depicting scenes of everyday Midwestern life.

He was one of the most popular of the regionalist art movement.

This movement began in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression and ended in the 1940s due to the end of World War II.

This painter was mainly known and appreciated for his paintings of the great depression.

Regionalist art in general was of a relatively conservative and traditionalist style that appealed to popular American sensibilities, while strictly opposing the perceived dominance of French art.

I chose "Cradling Wheat" by Benton as my painting.

It is an oil painting that was done in 1938. We can see in the foreground lean and muscular farmers who are harvesting grain.

We feel that they are gradually being exhausted by the workload.

In the background, the rise and fall of their activity through the undulating contours of the land emphasize the intimate relationship between man and nature.

Overall, it is a rather colorful painting with a blue sky, with vegetation and a rather particular artstyle.

Thomas Hart Benton, was known for elevating the life of the working class, making their everyday labors appear heroic.

Benton sought to capture images of grassroots America, which he felt was rapidly disappearing due to industrialization in the 1930s.

Moreover, we can say that this painting is nostalgic because the cradle scythe used by the farmer on the lest have been old-fashioneld. In conclusion, I decided to choose this work because in my opinion it shows perfectly the time of the great depression in the 1930s.

I particularly appreciate the painting with the colors used to show this period.. »