Oil Painting - Thomas Hart Benton?

Here's a gallery of all (more or less) of the THB paintings on the web, with some other stuff mixed in, and unavoidable repetition. A few are a bit naughty, so if u r a child, don't look.

.https://www.google.com/search?q=tho...ChMI8-6OpbWQxgIVpVqMCh2Z9QqV&biw=1341&bih=698

 

I'm waiting for a reply from Christie's. It almost looks like there could be a signature in the bottom left corner at the bottom of a pine tree. He typically signed "Benton" and and year number, sometimes it wasn't very pretty. Here's a thread I started tonight on the eBay boards with some comparison photos.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Collec...-Painting/m-p/24111781/highlight/false#M43169

 

Thanks Spring !!
I didn't know this guy before......but he was no slouch !!!

 

Well,I certainly hope we were all wrong ! Please let us know what christies says.

 

It would be interesting to see what Benton's earliest known works look like.

His typical style is clearly something he developed as a unique style, but I think it's possible his early works were similar but not so unique.

Can you take an extreme closeup of the area where you think there might be a signature?

As someone on eBay mentioned, it looks like it might be gouache. Is there any indication that Benton used gouache in his early works?

 

Another thought... according to wikipedia, Benton taught in Kansas City from '35-41. Perhaps this could be a work by one of his students?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hart_Benton_(painter)

 

I don't see Benton in this work. There is a lack of rhythm to it that is found in Benton's. I also see differences in the brushwork. Possibly a student or admirer but there were other regionalists working in similar styles all over. While Benton was arguably the best proponent of the style, he did not own it.

 

what?



Yeah, you guessed it, business is kinda slow today.

 

*chuckles*

 

I knew ya'll would come around, lol.

I had someone on the eBay board state that this couldn't be Benton because Benton was an academically trained artist.

Thomas Benton discussion aside, does this painting strike you as the work of an amateur? I could never paint a similar artwork, even with years of practice. Maybe it is something your born with and I just don't have it.

Myself, I couldn't imagine this being painted by an untrained artist.

 

Benton was just a thought given the area it was found. The earliest work I can find of Benton's dates to 1920 which is 13 years after his academic training.

My goal is to identify the artist, Benton or not.

 

Benton was in Paris from 1908 to 1911 studying painting at the Academie Julian. The few works that survive from the period show him emulating renaissance styles and just about every current "ism". Most of such early work as he kept was lost in a fire that destroyed the family home in 1917.