?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
THOMAS HART BENTON Fifth Avenue Bus.
Pencil on paper, circa 1919. 265x203 mm; 10 3/8x8 inches.
Professor Henry Adams, Case Western Reserve University, has confirmed the authenticity of this drawing. According to Adams, "The typed letter on the back relates to the Naval Reserves. This support could indicate the drawing dates from Thomas Hart Benton's period in the navy around 1918 but more likely is related to the fact that his sister Mary married Henry Mixer Briggs who was a naval officer."
The mustached man seated on the upper deck is likely a self portrait. Double-decker buses of this style were a common sight along Fifth Avenue, New York, during the 1910s-1920s.
