Thomas Hart Benton in his Martha’s Vineyard studio with his painting ‘Paint Mill Brook, Chilmark (Woodland Stream)’, 1969. Photo credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures Collection/Shutterstock
Thomas Hart Benton in his Martha’s Vineyard studio with his painting ‘Paint Mill Brook, Chilmark (Woodland Stream)’, 1969. Photo credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures Collection/Shutterstock

Martha's Vineyard had a profound effect on me. The relaxing sea air, the hot sand on the beaches where we loafed naked, the great and continuous drone of the surf, broke down most of the tenseness which life in the cities had given me. It separated me from the Bohemias of art and put a physical sanity into my life for four months of the year.

Thomas Hart Benton, An Artist in America, 4th ed. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983), 63.

 

  • Thomas Hart Benton, Flight of the Thielens, 1938

    Thomas Hart Benton

    Flight of the Thielens, 1938
    Oil on canvas mounted on panel
    25⅞ x 35⅞ inches
    65.7 x 91.1 cm
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  • Read Thomas Hart Benton and Martha's Vineyard by Erika Doss
  • “It was in Martha’s Vineyard that I first really began my intimate study of the American environment and its people.”...
    Thomas Hart Benton working outdoors on Martha’s Vineyard, 1969, Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

    “It was in Martha’s Vineyard that I first really began my intimate study of the American environment and its people.”

    —Thomas Hart Benton

  • Thomas Hart Benton, Sunbathers, Boat and Beach, 1947

    Thomas Hart Benton

    Sunbathers, Boat and Beach, 1947

    For Benton, Martha's Vineyard was less a summer vacation than an artmaking inspiration, a place where he successfully worked out his theories on modern painting in pictures of "Vineyard scenes and Vineyard characters." (“Painter and Author, In His Spare Time Thomas Benton Transposes Difficult Music to Play on His Harmoica,” Vineyard Gazette, July 16, 1937). In 1928, he and Rita became full-time seasonal residents in Chilmark, buying a three-room cottage on a hill overlooking Menemsha Pond and Vineyard Sound. The property included a small barn that became his summer studio.

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  • Thomas Hart Benton sketching near a shore in Martha’s Vineyard, 1969, Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
  • Thomas Hart Benton, The Brook, 1969

    Thomas Hart Benton

    The Brook, 1969
    A dynamic example of Benton’s nature subjects, The Brook (1969) was produced in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard, where the artist entered a highly prolific period of his career. Benton painted in controlled but lively strokes reflecting the sinuous curves of the flowing brook in this lush portrayal of the natural world.
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  • Benton’s 1925 painting Chilmark Landscape, is a pulsating summer scene of vibrant yellow, green, and blue forms depicting twisty roads, rolling hills, dense clumps of pitch pine and scrub-oak, rippling fields of salt hay and grains, and creamy, roiling banks of clouds. Starting from the lower right corner of the painting, Benton leads the viewer up the road, through the fields, and then down steep bluffs to one of Chilmark’s picturesque beaches, perfectly capturing the dynamic and energizing environment of Martha’s Vineyard.

  • Thomas Hart Benton, Chilmark Landscape, 1925

    Thomas Hart Benton

    Chilmark Landscape, 1925
    Oil on canvas
    18¼ x 23 inches
    46.4 x 58.4 cm
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  • If you would enjoy learning more about the available works, please contact Alana Ricca at (212) 879-8815, or alana@schoelkopfgallery.com. We look forward to being in touch.