Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975) Salvation Army Band, circa 1936-37 Ink and ink wash on tracing paper laid on board 11-3/4 x 8-1/2 inches (29.8 x 21.6 cm) PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTOR, DALLAS PROVENANCE: The artist; Ann Constable, acquired from the above; Christie's, New York, September 25, 1990, lot 92; Acquired by the present owner from the above. We wish to thank Dr. Henry Adams, Ruth Coulter Heade Professor of Art History, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, for providing the following essay: In 1936-7, while working on and just after completing his Missouri mural, Thomas Hart Benton engaged in several projects as a roving reporter. In 1936 Benton attended the Republican Convention in Cleveland, held June 9-12, the one which nominated Alf Landon of Kansas as the Republican candidate for President, and made several drawings, none of which seem to have been published. In February 1937 he visited flood-stricken areas in southern Missouri and made a group of drawings, some of which were published in the Kansas City Star. In July 1937 he visited Flint Michigan to make a series of drawings of labor activities there for Life magazine. The New York Times had reported that Michigan was on the brink of civil war; Benton created a series of pleasant genre scenes that satirize the notion that anything dangerous was afoot. In the summer of 1937 Benton also made a trip to Hollywood and made an ambitious series of forty well-developed drawings for Life magazine, which Life rejected. While Benton made just a few additional drawings that were reproduced in newspapers or magazines, this was the one period in Benton's career where he made a concentrated effort to make a mark as a magazine and newspaper illustrator and produced ambitious series of drawings for that purpose. The style and subject matter of this drawing suggest that it was made around this same time, 1936-37, and was intended as a newspaper or magazine illustration. But it does not fit specifically into any of these other series, since it portrays a Salvation Army Band, which suggests that it was made at a date close to Christmas, when Salvation Army bands are out in force. None of the other projects date from this time period. My belief is that Benton made this drawing around December 1936 or December 1937, hoping that it would be used by a newspaper such as the Kansas City Star. So far as I know, however, it was never published. The compositional scheme of this drawing, in which forms spiral around a real or implied vertical pole, in this case an American flag, is one that Benton learned from studying the work of old masters, such as Tintoretto and El Greco, and that he described in a series of articles for Arts magazine in 1926-27. In this drawing what's delightful is the variety of humorously characterized figures he fits into this formula: a uniformed trumpeter; a gangly man with big ears banging a drum; a rather anguished-looking singer with his mouth open very wide; a curious little boy with a cap; and various passers-by. The vernacular flavor of the drawing harks back to the newspaper cartoons that Benton admired and copied as a young boy. It's worth noting that his first paid job as an artist was to produce caricatures for the Joplin American, when he was still in his ‘teens. This is a wonderful example of Benton's work, filled with energy and exuberance. HID03101062020 © 2020 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved See More