Europa (Study)
Oil and tempera on canvas
8 3/4 x 11 1/8 inches
Biography
Born in Neosho, Missouri in the midst of massive agricultural and industrial growth, Thomas Hart is best known for his paintings and murals depicting American life amidst the change and progress of the early twentieth century. His stylized paintings, with animated figures set against backdrops of agriculture and architecture typical of middle America at the time, came to be associated with the Regionalist school of painting, a movement that broke with many of the Modernist tendencies of the time. In a period when abstraction was in vogue, Benton maintained a unique aesthetic that championed figurative and genre painting. Benton sought to capture times and places he held dear and which, in his view, were slowly disappearing to the encroaching infrastructure and industry. Benton’s fluid style and penchant for traditional subject matter exemplify the qualities emblematic of an important period in American painting.
