Rattlesnakes
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). He incorporated the coiled snake at the upper right of this sheet into the Midwest mural panel, where it is hiding beneath a railing and ready to strike. The motif may allude to the danger inherent in zealous overproduction for profit—a temptation that seduced many speculators and farmers through the 1920s and caused crop prices to fall dramatically.
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