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Lot Essay
Thomas Hart Benton was the son of a Missouri politician and carried on his father's strong patriotic feeling toward his country. Evident in his paintings throughout his career, Benton loved the spirit, vitality and strength of the people and the landscapes they lived in. "It would appear that Benton's overwhelming love for America found its true outlet--in the streams, hills and mountains of the country, populated by people unsuspectingly living out their time, quietly enjoying themselves, living easily on the land, celebrating nothing more than their existence." (M. Baigell, Thomas Hart Benton, New York, 1975, p.129)
Benton was an avid outdoorsman and nearly every spring, right up to the year of his death, he took canoe and float trips in Southwest Missouri or Northwest Arkansas. These excursions inspired a number of paintings, including, Shooting the Rapids. The present work is an example of Benton's passion for depicting Americans enjoying their land. Surrounded by sparkling blue and green water, two men make their way down a river scattered with rocks as they view the mountains beyond. The river is in a canyon of deep purple and gray cliffs and tall swaying trees. His style of painting matches this energetic and lively scene. Benton uses short strokes to paint the vivacity of the surrounding landscape and Benton's excitement of a scene in which he had been in so many times before.
Painted in 1973, Shooting the Rapids is an example of the artist's later works. Michael Baigell notes, "The streams, gullies, and soft hills of the Middle West--the vacation lands of the artist's mature years--become idyllic haunts of weekend fishermen and Sunday boatmen. The tumult of spirit in earlier paintings has given way to the continuous, easy pulsation of curving water banks, clumps of trees, and those familiar Middle Western clouds." Baigell continues regarding Benton's American landscapes, "At every level of meaning, his image of America was that of a vital, barely controllable power. Even in his late vacation scenes, the undulating contours of the terrain scarcely contain the generative forces pulsating within; he tried to express not merely his joy in experiencing the pleasures of a specific locality, but his love for the entire country." (Thomas Hart Benton, p.131)
This work will be included in the forthcoming Thomas Hart Benton catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation.
Benton was an avid outdoorsman and nearly every spring, right up to the year of his death, he took canoe and float trips in Southwest Missouri or Northwest Arkansas. These excursions inspired a number of paintings, including, Shooting the Rapids. The present work is an example of Benton's passion for depicting Americans enjoying their land. Surrounded by sparkling blue and green water, two men make their way down a river scattered with rocks as they view the mountains beyond. The river is in a canyon of deep purple and gray cliffs and tall swaying trees. His style of painting matches this energetic and lively scene. Benton uses short strokes to paint the vivacity of the surrounding landscape and Benton's excitement of a scene in which he had been in so many times before.
Painted in 1973, Shooting the Rapids is an example of the artist's later works. Michael Baigell notes, "The streams, gullies, and soft hills of the Middle West--the vacation lands of the artist's mature years--become idyllic haunts of weekend fishermen and Sunday boatmen. The tumult of spirit in earlier paintings has given way to the continuous, easy pulsation of curving water banks, clumps of trees, and those familiar Middle Western clouds." Baigell continues regarding Benton's American landscapes, "At every level of meaning, his image of America was that of a vital, barely controllable power. Even in his late vacation scenes, the undulating contours of the terrain scarcely contain the generative forces pulsating within; he tried to express not merely his joy in experiencing the pleasures of a specific locality, but his love for the entire country." (Thomas Hart Benton, p.131)
This work will be included in the forthcoming Thomas Hart Benton catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation.