Corn and Winter Wheat depicts one of Thomas Hart Benton’s most favored subjects, his home state of Missouri. Among six towering shocks of corn, a farmer plants winter wheat using a horse-drawn wagon, representing a traditional practice threatened by industrialization. The scene is a quintessential example of the midwestern agricultural settings that launched Benton to fame and landed him on the cover of Time magazine in 1934 as a co-founder of the Regionalist movement. Likely based on sketches Benton made while traveling in Missouri in 1945, Corn and Winter Wheat relates to two other examples of the same title and date in museum collections, including an oil on canvas at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and an oil on fabric at the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.