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Lassoing Horses

Thomas Hart Benton

American Art

One of the leading figures of American Scene painting, Thomas Hart Benton traveled throughout the United States seeking what he perceived to be authentically American subject matter. After watching a rodeo in Wyoming, he made this watercolor, which provided the basis for a vignette in The Arts of Life in America, a monumental mural cycle installed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1932. In the watercolor, Benton’s undulating lines and loose brushstrokes convey the energetic struggle between the horses and cowboys.
MEDIUM Watercolor over graphite on cream, medium-weight, slightly textured wove paper mounted to a secondary paper
  • Place Made: United States
  • DATES 1931
    DIMENSIONS Sheet: 21 1/4 x 27 3/4 in. (54 x 70.5 cm) Frame: 28 x 36 x 1 1/2 in. (71.1 x 91.4 x 3.8 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed and dated, lower right: "Benton / 31"
    COLLECTIONS American Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 35.948
    CREDIT LINE John B. Woodward Memorial Fund
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975). Lassoing Horses, 1931. Watercolor over graphite on cream, medium-weight, slightly textured wove paper mounted to a secondary paper, Sheet: 21 1/4 x 27 3/4 in. (54 x 70.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, John B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 35.948 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 35.948_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 35.948_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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