SPOTLIGHT: June 19, 2020

Thomas Hart Benton

The lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton, Little Fisherman, depicts a young boy wearing a straw hat while preparing his bamboo fishing pole to catch fish, an activity that many children enjoy doing with their father’s, especially on Father’s Day. The boy’s elongated, stylized hands and feet are typical features of Benton’s figures.

Thomas Hart Benton was one of the key interpreters of American life from the late 1920s through the mid-twentieth century, having created more than four thousand paintings and lithographs. Benton loved to trek through the back roads of the country and create pencil sketches of rural areas and the people who lived in them. Fishing was a favorite pastime of country life. His compositions celebrate America’s land, history, people and beauty.