American artist whose paintings and murals, such as The History of Missouri, were executed in a flat, realistic style known as regionalism and portrayed life in the Midwest and South. Benton Thomas Hart Benton William Burnett Pinchback Pinckney Benton Stewart
United States legislator who opposed the use of paper currency (1782-1858) United States artist whose paintings portrayed life in the Midwest and South (1889-1975)
born May 10, 1837, Macon, Ga., U.S. died Dec. 21, 1921, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. Born to a former slave and a white planter, he became a steward on river steamboats. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he reached Union-held New Orleans, where he raised and led a company of black Union volunteers called the Corps d'Afrique (1862-63). After the war he was elected to the Louisiana senate (1868) and served as lieutenant governor (1871). Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1872) and Senate (1873), he was denied his seat in each body on unproved charges of election fraud. He subsequently became a lawyer and moved to Washington, D.C
born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, N.C., U.S. died April 10, 1858, Washington, D.C. U.S. politician. After moving to St. Louis, Mo. (1815), he became editor of the St. Louis Enquirer. Appealing to agrarian and commercial interests, he won election to the U.S. Senate in 1820. He became a crusader for the distribution of public lands to settlers and was soon acknowledged as the chief spokesman in the Senate of the early Democratic Party. His opposition to the extension of slavery into the West cost him his Senate seat in 1851, though he later served in the House of Representatives (1853-55). His grandnephew was the artist Thomas Hart Benton. born April 15, 1889, Neosho, Mo., U.S. died Jan. 19, 1975, Kansas City, Mo. U.S. painter and muralist. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he came into contact with Synchromism and Cubism. In 1912 he returned to the U.S. and settled in New York City. Failing in his attempts at Modernism, he set out to travel through the rural heartland, sketching people and places. In the 1930s he painted several notable murals, including America Today (1930-31) at the New School for Social Research. He often transposed biblical and classical stories to rural American settings, as in Susanna and the Elders (1938). His style, which quickly became influential, is characterized by undulating forms, cartoonlike figures, and brilliant colour. He taught at the Art Students League in New York, where Jackson Pollock was his best-known student
born April 1, 1900, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. died March 18, 1973, New York, N.Y. U.S. publisher, advertising executive, and government official. A descendant of missionaries and educators, he founded, with Chester Bowles, the successful New York advertising agency of Benton & Bowles. He later became a vice president of the University of Chicago; through his efforts, the university acquired Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he managed and later purchased. In 1945 he became assistant secretary of state, and he later briefly served in the U.S. Senate (1949-52). Thereafter he devoted sustained attention to the encyclopaedia; he died shortly before the publication of its 15th edition
born April 1, 1900, Minneapolis, Minn., U.S. died March 18, 1973, New York, N.Y. U.S. publisher, advertising executive, and government official. A descendant of missionaries and educators, he founded, with Chester Bowles, the successful New York advertising agency of Benton & Bowles. He later became a vice president of the University of Chicago; through his efforts, the university acquired Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he managed and later purchased. In 1945 he became assistant secretary of state, and he later briefly served in the U.S. Senate (1949-52). Thereafter he devoted sustained attention to the encyclopaedia; he died shortly before the publication of its 15th edition