Thomas Hart BentonAmerican, 1889–1975Investigation
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Investigation” now? Collection: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
New York, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- Source
- The museum
Details
- Accession number
- 72.71
In the catalog
Sources
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Image: Whitney Museum of American Art — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Thomas Hart Benton
The whole life1926–1935
Employed by: Art Students League of New York
1935
Leaving New York for Missouri
Having alienated both the left-leaning community of artists with his disregard for politics and the larger New York–Paris art world with what was considered his folksy style, Benton leaves the artistic debates of New York for his native Missouri. Settling in Kansas City and taking a teaching job at the Kansas City Art Institute, he gains greater access to a rapidly changing rural America; a Populist by upbringing, he sympathizes with the working class and the small farmer.
1935–1941
Employed by: Kansas City Art Institute
1937
The autobiography “An Artist in America”
Publishes his autobiography An Artist in America, which is critically acclaimed; the writer Sinclair Lewis remarks that a painter who can write is a rare thing.
10 July 1939
Daughter born: Jessie Benton
1939–1944
Illustrates Twain and Steinbeck
Creates illustrations for Mark Twain's “Tom Sawyer” (1939), John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), Twain's “Huckleberry Finn” (1941) and “Life on the Mississippi” (1944).
