Threshing
Artist
Thomas Hart Benton
(American, 1889 - 1975)
Date1941
MediumLithograph on paper
DimensionsOverall: 9 1/4 × 14 inches (23.5 × 35.56 cm)
Credit LineGift of Robert M. White II in honor of his father, L. Mitchell White
Object numberF97-2/30
Signedlower right margin
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionWorkers threshing in a field. In the center is a grouping of workers, machinery, horses, and a truck. Another grouping is to the left, and smoke from the machine echoes the shape of the horizon line, as do the clouds.Gallery Label"The scene represents the past. . . . I’ll bet every bit of this land is now sprouting ranch houses and swim pools." — Thomas Hart Benton
Benton’s long career allowed him to reminisce about the changes through which he lived. In 1974, when he commented on the evolution of the land on the outskirts of Kansas City that he depicted in Threshing, the scene in the print represented a bygone era. An emblem of the increased mechanization of harvesting, the steam thresher billows black smoke that snakes across the horizon. The smoke echoes the rolling curve of the land and that of the white clouds from which it is so dramatically offset.
Copyright© Thomas Hart Benton and Rita P. Benton Testamentary Trusts / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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