?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
THOMAS HART BENTON Cabin in the Ozarks.
Pen and ink and wash on paper, circa 1926. 180x240 mm; 7x9 1/2 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
The current lot likely dates from around 1926, when Benton (1889-1975) undertook a walking tour through the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas. He was particularly interested in the preservation of early American folkways throughout the region.
At the time, he was also gathering inspiration for what would be his earliest mural series, The American Historical Epic. The 14 large canvases comprising this series, painted between 1926 and 1928, are more than 60 feet in length combined and are now in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. This important American mural by Benton demonstrates the effect and influence of the burgeoning motion picture industry, and explores themes such as westward expansion, prejudice, tolerance, cultural identity and the American dream.
We would like to thank Andrew Thompson and Dr. Henry Adams for their assistance with cataloguing this work.
