Thomas Hart Benton: The American Historical Epic

"Prayer" from Thomas Hart Benton's "American Historical Epic"

"During the winters in New York City, I developed my "History of America" project. The plan for this had been worked out as a progression of chapters, each chapter to contain five formally related pictures covering, over all, twenty-five feet of lateral space. The first chapter was to symbolize the period of discovery and settlement, the second the period of colonial expansion, and so on. Having acquired architect Ely Kahn's support, I counted on the Architectural League to exhibit my history as I produced it. 

In the winter of 1923-24, I finished the first chapter. It was accepted by the League and hung, and received a great deal of attention, including some sharp critical attention. This was due to its aesthetic, which was totally at odds with the prevailing views of mural work. Architects in general were then committed to the idea that mural paintings should not break the plane of the wall. They should be flat, pale in color and unobtrusive. The French muralist Puvis de Chavannes provided the most acceptable type of mural.

During the winters of 1925 and 1926, I completed the second chapter of my American history, which was also exhibited at the Architectural League. During this time, having come across Cennini's famous treatise on Renaissance techniques, I started working with the tricky problems of egg-tempera painting. I also returned to experimenting again with distemper. To get richer color for the latter, I made the mistake of using too heavy a glue solution, with the consequence that most of the paintings cracked so badly they were not worth preserving.

But my histories had by now given me something of a reputation as a mural painter."

To be continued

(Excerpts are from "An American in Art: A Professional and Technical Autobiography" by Thomas Hart Benton. Benton abandoned this series in 1926 after completing the two out of five chapters mentioned above. He had grown tired of its historical subject matter.)