Lithograph, 1936. 420x565 mm; 16 1/2x22 1/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. A very good, well-inked impression of this large, important lithograph.
This is one of four lithographs Benton (1889-1975) made based on his murals for the Missouri State Capitol, Jefferson City, 1935. The murals adorn the walls of the House Lounge, a spacious room where legislators congregated to discuss issues prior to separate offices being built in the state house.
The subject of the lithograph was inspired by a famous early 1900s folk song, loosely based on a murder committed by Frankie Baker, who shot her boyfriend, in St. Louis in October 1899 (the song has been recorded more than 250 times since the early 1900s, by Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and others). Benton considered the subject a part of Missouri mythology and therefore decided to include it in his Capitol murals. Fath 11.
