Thomas Hart Benton 1889-1975
Butterfly Chaser, 1951
Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on panel
39½ x 30 inches
100.3 x 76.2 cm
100.3 x 76.2 cm
Signed and dated at upper right: Benton ‘51; inscribed with the title on verso: Butterfly Chaser; inscribed on stretcher: HAPPY BIRTHDAY To Jessie, 12 yrs old. / Love— Daddy; dated and inscribed on stretcher again: Jessie Birthday 1951 / Daddy
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation. Committee Members: Dr. Henry Adams, Anthony Benton Gude, Andrew Thompson...
This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Thomas Hart Benton Catalogue Raisonné Foundation. Committee Members: Dr. Henry Adams, Anthony Benton Gude, Andrew Thompson and Michael Owen.
Provenance
The artist; by gift to
Jessie Benton (the artist's daughter), July 10, 1951; by descent to
Private collection, 2022 until the present
Exhibitions
The Art Museum of the New Britain Institute, Connecticut, Thomas Hart Benton, 1954, no. 21, as 1952The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original, April 16, 1989–July 22, 1990, no. 58, illus. p. 18
Owen Gallery, New York, Benton on the Vineyard, October 20–December 12, 2008
Martha's Vineyard Museum, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, Benton's Martha's Vineyard, June 29–August 11, 2019, as oil and tempera on canvas mounted on board
Literature
Matthew Baigell, Thomas Hart Benton, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1973, p. 110, pl. 76, illus. in color, as 1932Henry Adams, Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1989, p. 329, illus. in color
Henry Adams, Thomas Hart Benton: Paintings and Works on Paper, New York: Hammer Galleries, 2004, p. 46
Henry Adams, “Thomas Hart Benton and Martha’s Vineyard,” in Benton on the Vineyard, New York: Owen Gallery, 2008, pp. 8, 25 and 64, illus. in color pp. 6 (detail) and 65, oil and tempera on canvas mounted on board
Richard J. Powell, "'Dem Shoes': Thomas Hart Benton's Romance," in Austen Barron Bailly, ed., Thomas Hart Benton: American Epics and Hollywood, Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Essex Museum and Munich, London, and New York: Prestel Verlag, 2015, p. 85, fig. 2, illus. in color, as Butterfly Catcher, 1942
Henry Adams, Thomas Hart Benton: Discoveries and Interpretations, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2015, p. 73, illus. pp. 69 and 74, as 1932
Hermine Hull, "Benton's Martha's Vineyard," MV Times, July 24, 2019, illustrated
