July 2012 Auction Ends Tuesday, July 31st, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/31/2012
Massive archive from Thomas Hart Benton, including autograph letters, an artistic sketch and personal, handwritten notes about 81 of his lithographs. Archive also contains Benton's will, as well as drafts and pre-publication material related to the catalogue raisonne, ''The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton.'' Throughout his career, Benton produced 95 lithographs, many made to be sold in limited editions during the 1930's, with the purpose of making art accessible to regular people. Of these and others, Benton handwrites the story of each lithograph, describing in moving detail the inspiration behind his subjects -- the people and landscapes of America. Of the lithograph ''Instruction,'' which shows an African-American man reading to a young boy, Benton handwrites: ''A painting of this was made in 1940 directly from life. One of my students at the K.C. Art Institute found the man selling snake medicine...He caught rattle snakes and let them rot and ferment in gallon jars and sold the result as an aphrodisiac. He was also a preacher...this picture shows him telling about the Bible...'' Of the lithograph ''Down the River,'' Benton writes, ''A scene on the White River in the Ozarks. Drawings for it were made in 1939 while on a float trip down the river. The area presented is now under seventy-five feet of water due to the construction of Bull Shoals dam...such scenes are still common...Twice yearly, Spring and Autumn, I have floated these rivers for many years, fishing, camping...watching the river banks go by. The boy in the picture is my son T.P. Benton.'' For the lithograph entitled ''Lonesome Road,'' Benton recalls, ''...in 1926...I took a train to Little Rock...out of the window I saw this negro with his donkey cart on the hot dusty road...'' Benton also comments on the popular lithos he created of the characters in ''Grapes of Wrath,'' including Ma and Pa Joad, and ''Departure of the Joads.'' In a poignant description of ''Morning Train,'' Benton writes, ''Soldier leaving a small plains town. This litho was also called 'Going West' which in soldiers argot meant going to die...'' Of Benton's very first lithograph ''The Station,'' he writes, ''First lithograph...in 1926 I made a trip in a Model T Ford from Springfield, MO to Taos NM, stopping on the way at the new oil towns of the Texas, panhandle.'' Benton writes vividly to describe ''Fire in the Barn Yard'': ''This picture was made from a memory of my childhood. My grandfather 'Pappy' Wise had a cotton farm a few miles, 5 or 6, out of Waxahachie, Texas and one night when I was about 7 or 8 yrs old a giant light appeared in the sky. It was so great that speculation about the end of the world was bruited about among the grown folks at the farm. As it turned out a straw stack had caught fire on an adjoining farm...such things are immensely impressive to young'uns.''
In addition to handwritten notes by Benton referencing 81 of his lithographs (each on a 8.5'' x 11'' sheet, most with pictures of the lithograph), there are copious autograph notes by Benton answering questions about his lithographs (''damned if I know'' Benton writes about the titling of one piece), and ten autograph letters signed by Benton (with an additional ANS). Letters range in date from 1964 to 1973, all regarding the catalogue raisonne. Letter dated 16 May 1966 reads in part, ''...You might have a note at the end of your catalogue, or maybe in your foreword, saying that Benton made a number of experimental lithographs which were not circulated and which are not obtainable or even in some cases recorded...Thomas H. Benton''. In a 25 January 1968 letter, Benton draws a sketch of his lower body that he injured in the Bahamas and writes, ''...one 3'' cut in my right leg, (7 stitches,) one knocked in rib due to a clumsy guy who got catapulted into my chest when the boom of the mainsail came around on a wind shift, one $80 loss at poker, one prolonged drunk to sustain above injuries...you know how these tropical s.o.b.'s clear land with a machete. [He then draws a stump and himself] Small stump. Dried out. Sharp as a razor. Me walking in the brush. Stump up pant's leg. Tripped up - fell down. Stump performed neat operation on the fore muscle of my right leg below knee.'' Much more content throughout the letters, showcasing Benton's dry wit, such as ''I finally got to a satisfactory end with my legal problems, they will be signed, witnessed and damned before the dark of this day.'' He also writes in a 16 March 1970 letter, ''...I have turned sculptor this winter - working on a complicated football action in wax for a bronze casting. What with the recalcitrant medium - wax is tough, hard and contrary, - I haven't done anything else...one other thing. I have finally got a will contrived...'' Copies of both Benton and his wife's Last Will & Testament are included in this archive.
The last portion of the archive that contains handwritten notes by Benton consists of two parts: edits to the draft of the catalogue raisonne and answers in response to questions by Creekmore Fath, the book's author. In over 50 pages, Benton sheds light upon his creative process and previously unknown works, including one entitled ''Hoeing Cotton.'' Of the painting associated with the lithograph ''Island Hay,'' Benton writes, ''A very small painting, but one of my best.'' He writes that he first got interested in lithography in 1929 when he made a ''small litho of 'The Station' - called 'Okalahoma''' and that ''George Miller did all my printing. While I lived in New York (up to Spring of 1935 most lithographs were done in George's studio on East 14th St...George knew the kind of light and shade contrasts I wanted.''
Completing the archive is a signed copy by Benton of ''The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton'' as well as hundreds of pages of notes and drafts by the author, with additional content from Benton that did not make it into the book. Also included are eleven 9'' x 12'' lithograph copies on print-weight paper; a 1954 Art Museum of New Britain, Connecticut book of Benton's work; and approximately 13 letters by Benton's wife and daughter, Rita and Jessie. All items in generally very good condition and quite legible. An exceptional archive of material related to the body of work of one of America's greatest artists.
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Outstanding Archive of Thomas Hart Benton, Compiled for His Catalogue Raisonne -- Detailed Handwritten Notes by Benton on Nearly All His Lithographs, Letters About His Creative Process, Etc.
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