American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood

A detail of an oil painting of a White man with dark hair, mustache, shirtless, standing next to a seated White woman in a black bathing suit with children playing on a beach in the background.
February 6–May 1, 2016
Second floor

The first major exhibition in more than 25 years to feature the life and works of the renowned American painter Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood explores the previously overlooked relationship between Benton’s art and movie making.

Benton’s associations with the film industry began on the silent film sets of Fort Lee, New Jersey—the first “Hollywood”—and extended to an intimate career-long association with Hollywood’s movers and shakers. His awareness that movies were the best and most popular means of telling American tales inspired a signature artistic style that melded centuries-old traditions with movie-production techniques to create images that appealed to a broad range of Americans.

The exhibition brings together nearly 100 works by Benton, including more than 30 of his paintings and murals, as well as a selection of his drawings, prints, and illustrated books in juxtaposition with scenes from some of Hollywood’s greatest films.

Thomas Hart Benton

Self-Portrait with Rita, ca. 1924

Oil on canvas

An oil painting of a White man with dark hair, mustache, shirtless, standing next to a seated White woman in a black bathing suit with children playing on a beach in the background.

Thomas Hart Benton

Hollywood, 1937-38

Tempera with oil on canvas, mounted on panel

An oil painting depicting various aspects of movie-making: cameras, lights, sound, set props, and actors in various positions.,

Thomas Hart Benton

Portrait of a Musician, 1949

Casein, egg tempera, and oil varnish on canvas, mounted on wood panel

A painting of a Black man wearing a suit and tie playing an upright bass with a bow.

Thomas Hart Benton

Member of the Chorus, 1937

Ink, ink wash, and graphite on paper

An ink drawing of a woman seated in a folding chair on the set of a movie applying lipstick.

Thomas Hart Benton

Thursday Night at the Cock-and-Bull. It’s the Maid’s Night Out, 1937

Ink, watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper

A grayscale painting of the interior of a saloon with men and women seated and standing at a bar and other patrons seated at table enjoying drinks.

Thomas Hart Benton

Lewis and Clark at Eagle Creek, 1967

Polymer and tempera on Masonite panel

A painting of a river, a boat on it near the mouth of a creek, winding through a mountainous region with three bison in the near distance.

Thomas Hart Benton

The Kentuckian, 1954

Oil on canvas

An oil painting of a White man and White boy, both with blond hair and both wearing deerskin outfits, and their dog standing on top of a hill overlooking a valley.

Thomas Hart Benton

Shipping Out, 1942

Oil on canvas

A painting of a line of men in military fatigues and hard hats walking up a ramp to a door on a ship or an airplane.

Thomas Hart Benton

The Lost Hunting Ground, 1927-28

Oil on canvas

An oil painting of an Indigenous man standing next to a tree watching two White men building a log structure.

Thomas Hart Benton

Bootleggers, 1927

Egg tempera and oil on linen, mounted on Masonite panel

A painting of people in an airfield buying a bottle from a man as a pilot in an airplane watches; in the background, two men in a car are being held up at gunpoint under a railroad bridge as a police officer naps.

Installation Photos

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The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, organized this exhibition in collaboration with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The exhibition was made possible in part by Bank of America and a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 years of excellence, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

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