Painting of the Day, December 16, 2011

- Part 3 of Illustrators of The Oregon Trail

By Donna Poulton

"I've heard people complain of the monotony, the weariness, the oppressiveness of the plains. For me the great plains have a releasing effect. They make me want to run and shout at the top of my voice. I like their endlessness. I like the way they make human beings appear as the little bugs they really are. I like the way they make thought seem futile and ideas but the silly vapors of the physically disordered. To think out on the great plains, under the immense rolling skies and before the equally immense roll of the earth, becomes a presumptuous absurdity." — Thomas Hart Benton

Perhaps the most important Regionalist painter of the 1930s, Thomas Hart Benton’s stylized works are as easily recognized as his subjects. He depicted themes that were uniquely American: farmers, floods, miners, politics and the heroic figures of the west. Benton’s contributions to the centennial edition of Parkman’s Oregon Trail were ideally suited to the narrative he enjoyed illustrating.

Cover illustration by Thomas Hart Benton. Credit: graydogsbooks

Frontispiece by Thomas Hart Benton. Credit: etsy.com

Sunflower and Buffalo by Thomas Hart Benton. Credit: monet.unk.edu

For more information on Illustrators of The Oregon Trail and Thomas Hart Benton you might be interested in these posts:

Impressions of the West: Thomas Hart Benton

Painting of the Day, The Oregon Trail, Frederic Remington

Painting of the Day, The Oregon Trail, N.C. Wyeth

Painting of the Day, November 30, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"I paint barns and rural life, not because it may have been or is in vogue, but because my twenty years as a farmer provide me with an essential and intimate knowledge of my subject matter...." –Dale Nichols

Dale Nichols is often thought of as the fourth Regionalist artist after the triumvirate of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry.  He was raised in Nebraska and spent much of his life painting the rural agrarian life he was familiar with.   His work has received renewed attention with a traveling exhibition organized by the Bone Creek Museum in David City, Nebraska, Nichols home town.

Credit: Coeur D’Alene Auction

Dale W. Nichols (1904-1995), Trail Drive, 1950, oil on board, 20 x 30 in.