Swampland.. [The Swamp.]

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)

Lithograph, 1941.

Edition 100.

Signed in pencil.

Image size 12 3/4 x 17 3/4" (45.2 x 32.2 cm).

"The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton" by Creekmore Fath. #49.

Very good condition, full original margins.

"Made for a movie dealing with southern swamp lands.  The drawing, minus the skull was made in Louisiana - area forgotten but within 50 or 60 miles of Abbeville, LA."  Thomas Hart Benton. 

In 1941 Benton was commissioned by Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corporation to do a series of lithographs portraying the habitat and main characters of Vereen Bell's Saturday Evening Post novel, "Swamp Water."  This was the first American film of the great French motion picture director Jean Renoir. The commission resulted in six lithographs which were used to publicize the motion picture. They are known as  "The Swamp Water Series."