An early manifestation of Benton’s emulation of sixteenth-century Italian painting, The Bather evokes the ignudi (male nudes) that populate Michelangelo’s fresco in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel (1508–1512). In this nearly square composition, a muscular male nude leans forward, turning to his left while looking to the right. Cool, pale lavender and light green tones defining the surrounding natural setting offset the luminous warm palette used for the figure. The Bather suggests the genesis of what by the 1930s became Benton’s elongated, energetic signature style, as seen throughout his America Today mural, now in The Met’s collection.
The painting is a substantial fragment of a larger composition, which was damaged and cut down early in its history.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Bather
Artist:Thomas Hart Benton (American, Neosho, Missouri 1889–1975 Kansas City, Missouri)
Date:1917
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:29 3/4 × 27 3/4 in. (75.6 × 70.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Anonymous Gift, 2021
Object Number:2021.384
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Benton
the artist (1917–late 1920s/early 1930s; his gift in late 1920s/early 1930s to Raabe); Dr. Alfred Raabe (late 1920s/early 1930s–d. 1970); by descent to private collection (ca. 1980–2021; their gift to MMA)
New York. Chelsea Neighborhood Art Gallery. "Paintings and Drawings by Thomas H. Benton," March–April 15, 1917.
New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Art Gallery. "Thomas Hart Benton: A Retrospective of His Early Years, 1907–1929," November 19–December 30, 1972, no. 15 (as "Bather," anonymous loan).
Washington, D.C. National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution. "Academy: The Academic Tradition in American Art," June 6–September 1, 1975, no. 160 (as "Bather," ca. 1917, anonymous lender).
Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. "Thomas Hart Benton," September 5–November 15, 1992, no. 12 (lent by a private collection).
New York. Owen Gallery. "Thomas Hart Benton: Exhibition of Paintings," October 14–December 15, 2000, unnumbered cat. (p. 39).
Willard Huntington Wright. "Modern Art: An American Painter of Promise." International Studio 61 (May 1917), ill. p. XCV (earlier version), generally discusses the works in Exh. New York 1917.
"Chelsea Artist's Work on View." New York Times (March 17, 1917), p. 14.
Matthew Baigell. "Thomas Hart Benton in the 1920's." Art Journal 29 (Summer 1970), p. 423, fig. 3 (earlier version), dates it about 1916 and lists it as location unknown.
"2 Exhibitions: Benton and Rockwell." New York Times (November 12, 1972), p. 128, ill.
Phillip Dennis Cate. Thomas Hart Benton: A Retrospective of His Early Years, 1907–1929. Exh. cat., Rutgers University Art Gallery. New Brunswick, N.J., 1972, unpaginated, no. 15, ill. front cover (color), provides the artist's explanation for the damage to this picture in his studio, resulting in the diminished size.
Matthew Baigell. Thomas Hart Benton. New York, [1974], p. 36, colorpl. 14, dates it about 1917.
Robert F. Chirico. "Thomas Hart Benton and Pieter Bruegel." Arts Magazine 54 (September 1979), p. 148.
Victor Koshkin-Youritzin. "Thomas Hart Benton: 'Bathers' Rediscovered." Arts Magazine 54 (May 1980), p. 98, fig. 3, dates it about 1917.
William H. Gerdts. Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801–1939. Columbia, Mo., 1981, p. 241.
Henry Adams. Thomas Hart Benton: An American Original. Exh. cat., Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo. New York, 1989, p. 81, generally discusses works in Exh. New York 1917.
Henry Adams inThomas Hart Benton. Ed. Rudy Chiappini. Exh. cat., Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano. Milan, 1992, p. 151, no. 12, ill. pp. 37 (color), 151.
Marianne Berardi inThomas Hart Benton: Exhibition of Paintings. Exh. cat., Owen Gallery. New York, 2000, pp. 14, 32 n. 5, ill. inside front cover (color detail).
Andrew Austin Thompson inThomas Hart Benton: Exhibition of Paintings. Exh. cat., Owen Gallery. New York, 2000, pp. 38–39, ill. (color).
Thomas Hart Benton (American, Neosho, Missouri 1889–1975 Kansas City, Missouri)
1937
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