{"data":{"id":"101","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":101,"topgoose_id":2801,"tms_id":101,"display_name":"Thomas Hart Benton","sort_name":"Benton Thomas Hart","display_date":"1889–1975","begin_date":"1889","end_date":"1975","biography":"\u003cp\u003eThomas Hart Benton studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and lived in Paris and New York, but upon returning to his native Missouri in the mid-1930s he rejected the avant-garde art movements and urban themes of those centers for a folksy, nationalistic realism that he developed in paintings and murals. Together with the painters \u003ca href=\"/artists/310\"\u003eJohn Steuart Curry\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"/artists/661\"\u003eJoe Jones\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/artists/1447\"\u003eGrant Wood\u003c/a\u003e, he became a leading exponent of American Regionalism. The roughened hands of the husband and wife depicted in \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/489\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Lord Is My Shepherd\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003etestify to decades of hard work, and a Bible sampler on the wall affirms their faith. The couple assume a symbolic stature in this painting as emblems of a pious, simple life, though they were modeled on two specific individuals, Sabrina and George West. In Chilmark, the town where Benton summered for more than fifty years on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a particular form of hereditary deafness was prevalent and affected the Wests, among many others of Benton’s neighbors.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/4174\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoker Night (from A Streetcar Named\nDesire)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003ewas a commission from producer\nDavid O. Selznick, a surprise gift for his wife,\nIrene Mayer Selznick, who produced the\nTennessee Williams play on Broadway in\n1947. The painting portrays a dramatic\nmoment when the refined but fallen Blanche\nDubois, holding a mirror and wearing a\nrevealing gown, taunts her drunk, violent\nbrother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (pictured in\na white undershirt). While Benton’s figurative\nstyle had remained relatively consistent\nover two decades, his subject here is more\nprovocative and takes narrative liberties.\nIndeed, Jessica Tandy, who played Dubois\nonstage opposite Marlon Brando’s Kowalski,\nwas offended by her portrayal in this\npainting—her costumes in the play had\nbeen considerably more demure.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500005998","wikidata_id":"Q471764","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:36:20.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-31T07:00:40.040-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/101/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/101/exhibitions"}}}}