Louisiana Rice Fields
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Thomas Hart Benton focused on the broad appeal of the commonplace, as seen in this painting of laboring rice harvesters. He described American “types” rather than specific individuals and places, and rendered them in a directly expressive, almost caricatured manner. Benton, and his peers in the American Scene movement of painting that arose in the late 1920s, deliberately abandoned European-derived subjects and urban settings in favor of imagery drawn from the rural United States.
Caption
Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975). Louisiana Rice Fields, 1928. Egg tempera and oil on Masonite, 30 1/8 × 47 7/8 in. (76.5 × 121.6 cm) frame: 38 1/8 x 55 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. (96.8 x 141.9 x 8.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, John B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 38.79. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Louisiana Rice Fields
Date
1928
Medium
Egg tempera and oil on Masonite
Classification
Dimensions
30 1/8 × 47 7/8 in. (76.5 × 121.6 cm) frame: 38 1/8 x 55 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. (96.8 x 141.9 x 8.9 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right: "Benton"
Credit Line
John B. Woodward Memorial Fund
Accession Number
38.79
Frequent Art Questions
Can you tell me about this?
Thomas Benton is known for his depictions of the American working class and rural landscapes. He traveled around the American South in the 1920s to gather ideas for his art and made many sketches along the way. Here we see workers harvesting a rice crop, putting it through machinery to be sorted and then bagged.I like the realism in this painting and they way that is shows hardworking Americans. It makes me think of an industrial society evolving from rural America.
Thomas Benton, who painted this work, was definitely interested in showing parts of rural American during a time when the country was rapidly industrializing!I heard he has a really cool type of wraparound maybe mural? In the Met?He does indeed have a ten panel mural called "America Today," which would have been able to cover and entire room!The mural shows scenes from different regions of the United States, based on benton's own travels throughout the country.
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