Thomas Hart Benton

Born: 1889

Died: 1975

Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri, into a prominent family of American politicians. After leaving high school, Benton worked briefly as a cartoonist before his father enrolled him in the Western Military Academy in 1906. After a year there, Benton enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a sojourn at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1911, Benton returned to the United States, settling in New York. During World War I, Benton was stationed in Norfolk, VA, but afterwards returned to New York where he married his former student, Rita Piacenza. While in New York, Benton completed mural cycles for the New School and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He became known for his stylistic handling of Regionalist subject matter in large scale murals and in smaller works, which were informed by his travels around the United States. While in New York, Benton taught at the Art Students League, where Jackson Pollock was one of his students. Benton moved to Kansas City, MO in 1935, where he remained for the rest of his life. Benton continued to paint Regionalist subjects after World War II, even though the genre was no longer as popular.