Thomas Hart Benton

(American, 1889-1975)

Making Camp, 1972

Lithograph on paper

11 3/4" x 14 1/4" (image)

Edition of 250

Pencil-signed "Benton" in the lower right margin. Full sheet (16" x 19") with deckled edges, housed in a glazed frame measuring 22 1/4" x 24 1/4". From an edition of 250, circulated by Associated American Artists.

Of Making Camp, Benton commented: "As I've said lots of times, I like rivers. I especially like those clear free flowing rivers of the Ozarks which have escaped the attentions of the Army Corps of Engineers. For years I've floated down these rivers every spring... Generally the river floaters I run with make camp at the end of the day on the gravel bars lining one of these pools and fish them while supper is cooked. That's what this litho shows. The pool is under some bluffs on the Buffalo River in the northwest Arkansas."

Literature: Creekmore Fath, The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, 1979 (second edition), University of Texas Press, 86.

Very good condition. The sheet is not laid down, but hinged to the mat along the top edge. Negligible toning from light exposure. One stray pencil mark in the bottom margin outside the mat window.