THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975) The Prodigal Son.

THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975)
The Prodigal Son. Lithograph. 258x335 mm; 10x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1939.A very good impression.Benton used a dilapidated house and surrounding landscape in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, where he and his family summered, as the setting for this subject. Fath 29.Benton was already seen as a leader in the Regionalist movement and a celebrated muralist by the time the WPA started the Federal Arts Program. He had been commissioned to paint murals of life in Indiana for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, which caused controversy. In 1934, his work was featured on the cover on Time magazine, which legitimized Regionalism as an art movement. His murals were influential for the artists hired as muralists under the WPA.