KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Like a blank canvas, the studio is plain and neutral in appearance. But what would happen here over the course of 35 years would portray the vibrant colors of American life in a way no other 20th century artist would be able to capture.

From the dark days of the Great Depression to sweeping scenes from the Buffalo River in Northwest Arkansas, Thomas Hart Benton devoted his life to telling the story of America’s common men and women.

The schedule

“He spent most of his time in this studio. He worked seven days a week,” said Steve Sitton, administrator of the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site in Kansas City.

“He would come here at daybreak and would work until 11, when he would have lunch with two martinis. He would take a nap and go back to the studio at 2 p.m. He would work till 5, when he would have dinner with another drink, usually bourbon.

“If his wife, Rita, was late with dinner, he would ask, ‘Are we going to eat or just get drunk?’”

After dinner, Benton would return to the studio and plan the next day’s work.

When you tour Benton’s home and studio, you see it as it was left shortly after Benton’s death of heart failure in early 1975. His wife, whose health was failing, would die 11 weeks later. They had been married for nearly 53 years. After he died, his wife simply said: “I have nothing left to do.”

The Bentons in 1939 acquired their 1903 eclectic-style house at 3616 Belleview Ave. Benton converted half of the carriage house into his studio in the early 1940s. He modified the studio by adding an 8- by 12-foot window to the north side to capture indirect light, the best light by which to paint.

In the studio, one sees how Benton used coffee cans to store his paint brushes and how he organized his paints. On the walls are unused frames and photographs of nude statues. There are wooden boxes that were used to ship paintings, along with an easel with a blank canvas and personal mementos, including photographs of Benton and his late-in-life friend Harry S. Truman.

On Friday, Lois Allen, of Independence, took her mother, Reba Glasco, both formerly of the Diamond area, through the studio and house.

“I did not know that much about Thomas Hart Benton other than the mural he did at the Truman library,” Allen said. “This was really interesting. I learned a lot more about his family and his wife, who was very interesting.”

Nothing showy

About the studio, Allen said, “You would never believe he worked in such a drab place.”

Glasco said she was happy to see that the site is so well maintained by the state. About the home and studio, she said: “I was kind of surprised. It was not a showy place.”

It was in the studio that Benton painted “Joplin at the Turn of the Century,” which hangs in Joplin’s City Hall. It was commissioned for Joplin’s centennial in 1973. It would be his next-to-last mural. The studio features a photo of Benton with the Joplin mural in the background.

“It’s all his stuff,” said Sitton. “All day, every day, this is where Tom was at. Rita took care of the house, the family and the gallery so that Tom could focus on his work.”

The Benton home was an active place. Political leaders, artists, writers, architects and poets were frequent guests. The Bentons raised their children there and at their other home at Martha’s Vineyard. He taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, which was about a mile or so from the house. His wife ran the gallery in the living room of the home.

“You could come into their home and literally buy something off the wall,” Sitton said.

“Persephone,” which features a nude woman and an old man peering through the bushes at her, was considered scandalous when it was painted in 1939. It was often shown in private. At one time, it could have been purchased from the Bentons for $12,000. It eventually was acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in 1987. At that time, the amount paid was the highest that had been paid by the museum for a painting.

13 originals

The two-story home features 13 original Benton pieces and some reproductions. One can see the dishes the Bentons used, the liquor they purchased, the clothes they wore and the books they read. They speak to the lifestyle and the personalities of the people who lived there.

Benton, born in 1889 in Neosho, played to the “common man” theme with his flannel shirts and rustic look. But he came from a prominent political family that gave him opportunities early in life. As a child, Benton received art instruction at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., during his father’s term in Congress. At age 17, he was drawing cartoons for the Joplin American newspaper. He later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at several academies in Paris. Jackson Pollock would be his most famous student.

His style was greatly influenced by his two-year service as a draftsman in the Navy in World War I. It helped him develop a sense of realism about his work. It would help create an approach to painting that emphasized a series of steps, beginning with sketches and small paintings that would evolve into wax and clay models, a cartoon and then a final grid, Sitton said.

“Benton viewed his murals as the highest form of public art. It was common art for the common man,” said Sitton. “He said he liked them because he could put more stuff in them.

“He was out here in his studio when he had his heart attack. He was putting the finishing touches on his last mural, ‘The Sources of Country Music,’ for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. He did not sign that mural.

“I guess you could say he went out with his boots on, working until the very end.”





The first mural

Thomas Hart Benton at age 6 painted his first mural, a charcoal drawing, on the stairway wallpaper of the family home in Neosho. The mural featured a locomotive, one of his favorite subjects.

“He got in trouble for that,” said Steve Sitton, administrator of the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site in Kansas City. “He had to scrub it off. He would later say that was his first encounter with an art critic, and it wasn’t appreciated.”





The site

The Benton historic site, at 3616 Belleview Ave., is visited by about 4,000 people annually. At a third of an acre, it is Missouri’s smallest state park. There is no set schedule for tours, which usually take 45 minutes.

Costs for guided tours are $4 for adults and $2.50 for students ages 6 to 12. Children under 6 are admitted free. There is a maximum rate of $15 per family.

During the summer, the site is open on Mondays, and Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Sundays, hours are noon to 5 p.m. The site is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.



Numerous venues display Benton artworks

In a career that spanned several decades, Thomas Hart Benton produced about 1,000 full-size paintings, about 1,500 studies and 14 murals. Many of the pieces are displayed in museums, libraries and public places, while others are part of private collections.

Here are some places where Benton’s work can be seen:

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has about 35 pieces in its collection, including one of Benton’s most noted works, “Persephone.”

The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph has “Custer’s Last Stand.”

The new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, under construction in Bentonville, Ark., has “Plowing It Under.”

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City has “Desert Artist.”

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art has “Aaron.”

The Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kan., has “The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley.”

College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout has “The Departure of the Joads,” which was commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox to advertise its film production of John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath.”

The Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City features one of Benton’s most controversial murals, “A Social History of the State of Missouri,” in the House Lounge. The questionable scenes include fur traders selling whiskey to Indians and Jesse James robbing a bank.

The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence has “Independence and the Opening of the West.”

Joplin’s City Hall features Benton’s next-to-last mural, “Joplin at the Turn of the Century.”

Neosho’s City Hall has several small pieces on display in its lobby.