Thomas Hart Benton

(American, 1889–1975)

Saw Mill & Cornmeal & Grinder - Custom Grinding on Saturdays, c. 1928

sepia, wash, ink, and pencil on paper

titled and signed Benton (lower left); titled 'Saw Mill/ Corn Grinder East Tenn' (on verso)

8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches.

We thank Dr. Henry Adams and Andrew Thompson for their help researching this lot.

Provenance:

James Reinish & Associates, Inc., New York (label verso)

Lot note:

Beginning the summer of 1924, Benton took long trips across the country, searching to make a visual record of America and "...hidden pockets of old-fashioned culture that still existed in a world of their own, isolated from the bustle of the cities" (Henry Adams, Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original, New York, 1989, p. 134). In 1928, the artist and a student, Billy Hayden, went on a lengthy summer sketching trip that took them through Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the Smoky Mountains, and on through an area stretching from Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. In the present artwork, Benton depicts a multi-purpose mill perched on the edge of a hill and surrounded by a tight path that drops steeply to the side. A rider and horse carefully pick their way along the precarious trail. The drawing was likely executed either in Appalachia or the Smoky Mountains, based on the terrain. According to Dr. Adams, the work is one of the few drawings from this period with a written caption, which suggests that Benton was already thinking of producing an illustrated book, though An Artist in America was not published until 1936.

Saw Mill & Cornmeal & Grinder - Custom Grinding on Saturdays, c. 1928