Lot Essay
Still Life with Spring Flowers (with Apple and Red Vase) is a recently discovered work by Thomas Hart Benton. According to Henry Adams, "From the late thirties, Benton tried his hand at small still life paintings. Columbine, tulips, peony, iris and fruit blossoms are combined with a sense of vitality, which is enhanced by the high key palette." (Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original, Kansas City, 1989, as quoted in N. J. Little, "IFAR Verifies New Benton Still Life," IFAR Reports, vol. 16, no. Janury, 1995, p.5)
In 1949 Benton also executed a closely related work, Still Life with Spring Flowers (tempera on board, 29 x 24, sold by the William T. Kemper Charitable Trust in these rooms December 1, 1989, lot 245). Both pictures incorporate the metal bowl and red hobnail glass vase, which bear a strong resemblance to actual objects in Benton's home. In addition, the artist made a small study for these works in 1948, which also depicts the bowl and vase (oil on tin, 4 x 2 inches, sold in these rooms November 30, 1994, lot 193, on the reverse) Henry Adams writes, "While Benton did not usually make full-scale oil studies of this type, there are special factors which make it plausible in this instance. For one thing, the composition is more elaborate than many of Benton's still life. Thus, it probably required extra planning and preparation. For obvious reasons, still life is not well suited to the technique of clay models which Benton usually used to work out his figure compositions. In addition, flowers fade, and Benton may well have felt pressure to work out the major difficulties of his design before his models disappeared." (Little, "IFAR Verifies New Benton Still Life", p. 4) In fact, Benton's wife Rita arranged the flowers for the compositions after picking them from the garden. Still life was clearly a subject Benton enjoyed, and it is interesting that he experimented with different media, including oil on tin, tempera, and oil on canvas.
In 1949 Benton also executed a closely related work, Still Life with Spring Flowers (tempera on board, 29 x 24, sold by the William T. Kemper Charitable Trust in these rooms December 1, 1989, lot 245). Both pictures incorporate the metal bowl and red hobnail glass vase, which bear a strong resemblance to actual objects in Benton's home. In addition, the artist made a small study for these works in 1948, which also depicts the bowl and vase (oil on tin, 4 x 2 inches, sold in these rooms November 30, 1994, lot 193, on the reverse) Henry Adams writes, "While Benton did not usually make full-scale oil studies of this type, there are special factors which make it plausible in this instance. For one thing, the composition is more elaborate than many of Benton's still life. Thus, it probably required extra planning and preparation. For obvious reasons, still life is not well suited to the technique of clay models which Benton usually used to work out his figure compositions. In addition, flowers fade, and Benton may well have felt pressure to work out the major difficulties of his design before his models disappeared." (Little, "IFAR Verifies New Benton Still Life", p. 4) In fact, Benton's wife Rita arranged the flowers for the compositions after picking them from the garden. Still life was clearly a subject Benton enjoyed, and it is interesting that he experimented with different media, including oil on tin, tempera, and oil on canvas.