Thomas Hart Benton Analysis

Thomas Hart Benton, along with a few other artists including Grant Wood and John Stuart Curry were a part of a modern art movement called regionalism. Romance (Fig. 1) was one of the many paintings that Thomas Hart Benton created during this time, the painting was made with mediums of tempera and oil varnish glazes in gesso panel on board and is 45 1/4 inches by 33 1/4 inches. Romance represents everything that a painting created during the Regionalism era should represent. The painting also represents everything that a visual piece should represent. There are diagonal lines being represented in the focal figures that shows that they are in movement, in the case, walking. It contains opaque hues in the background and darker vibrant hues represented on the focal points to bring them forward and …show more content…
The objects in the piece are to scale relative to where they were placed on the landscape and are true to size. We can tell what objects are in the background and which are in the foreground and every object is portrayed in a realistic manner. I believe that balance of the composition, the hues used, and the texture of the painting played a substantial role in creating the mood of this painting, which is a sense of stability and calmness. He depicts an African American man and woman walking together, the man is barefoot and there is a small house in the background. It highlights the importance of the hard working people in the center of the painting while maintaining all the important elements of a visual piece. He created a perfect balance of composition, hues, texture, and mood. The Great Depression and political injustice were major patrons of the Regionalism movement started by Thomas Hart Benton, thus driving the subject matter to be of hard working American