Roger Norman Medearis (1920-2001)

Tom Benton Painting a Portrait - 1939

1992

The hand-colored lithograph from an Artist's Proof edition (AP) is signed and dated by the artist in pencil below the image lower right and titled lower center. The inscription, 'color added by hand' is written in pencil below the signature. Artist's proofs are made under the direct supervision of the artist and considered to be of higher quality than the regular numbered edition and only a few are pulled. They give the artist a chance to refine details before embarking on the larger edition.

There is added significance to this print. Roger Medearis tells the story of being invited to a surprise birthday party for his instructor of art, Thomas Hart Benton. Unsure of his place in the setting, he was relieved and delighted to find the group at Benton's house standing around an earlier version of this image, making much ado of the artist's lithograph hanging on the wall of their teacher's home.

An inscription on this print speaks to this: ''Based on a lithograph I made in 1940 while a student of Thomas Hart Benton - most of those prints were later lost, or destroyed - R. M.''

Roger Medearis was considered one of Benton's most promising students during their tenure at The Kansas City Art Institute. But following the War, Medearis, like so many Regionalists, became disillusioned with societal changes that saw the public turn away from the old: Regionalism, and embrace the new: Abstraction.

Life happened and it wasn't until decades later that the artist found himself making art once again. This print and others in this auction by Roger Medearis are the result of his return to Regionalism.

Image size 14 x 11, sheet measures 18 x 13.75, frame is 24 x 20 inches.

Provenance: The Constable Family Collection.

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Very good to fine condition, very clean, the full untrimmed sheet with four deckle edges, not laid down, no damage, stain, punctures, tears or repair; framed to archival standards in acid free mounts.