Sketch for Midwest and Deep South
Thomas Hart Benton American
Not on view
This sketch is one of dozens of drawings that Benton used to compose his mural America Today, also in the Museum’s collection (2012.478a–j). The drawing suggests Benton’s efforts to determine the relationship between the mural panels Deep South and Midwest. He blocked out key figures such as the downtrodden African American worker unloading cotton at the far right and began to establish figural groups and their environments within the irregular spaces created by the moldings. In translating these designs to the panels, Benton made select but meaningful changes: in Midwest , the foremost deforester turns toward, rather than away from, the viewer, and the telephone pole appears far in the distance rather than in the foreground.
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