Self-portrait
Artist
Thomas Hart Benton
(American, 1889 - 1975)
Date1972
MediumLithograph
DimensionsImage: 19 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches (49.53 x 34.93 cm)
Framed: 27 1/4 x 21 1/4 x 7/8 inches (69.22 x 53.98 x 2.21 cm)
Framed: 27 1/4 x 21 1/4 x 7/8 inches (69.22 x 53.98 x 2.21 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Marjorie S. Frontman
Object number2008.15.3
Signedl.r. (in plate): "Benton" l.r. margin (in pencil): "Benton"
Edition/State/Proofedition of 300
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionArtist holding a paint brush in each hand.Gallery LabelThe only way an artist can personally fail is to quit work. — Thomas Hart Benton
Benton never ceased working. In fact, he was in his Kansas City studio when he died in 1975. This self-portrait, based on one painted five years before his death, shows the aging artist engaged in his craft. Standing before his easel, brushes in hand, he wears a sweater over one of the checked flannel shirts that often composed his uniform—that of a working man dedicated to chronicling the American experience in his art.
no known provenance
Copyright© Thomas Hart Benton and Rita P. Benton Testamentary Trusts / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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