Threshing (Primary Title)
Thomas Hart Benton, American, 1889 - 1975 (Artist)
Associated American Artists (Publisher)
Threshing is one of sixty-three lithographs Thomas Hart Benton produced for the printmaking firm Associated American Artists, which circulated the work in an edition of 250. Originally available via mail order and department stores for only five dollars each, these prints not only depicted Midwestern and Great Plains subjects but also brought art to these and other areas. In essence, works like Threshing distributed by printmaking companies brought Regionalism to the outlying “regions.”
By the time Benton made the drawings upon which Threshing is based, the machinery in this image was outdated, and, as in other prints, the artist took pride in capturing the ways of life just before they were eclipsed by modernity. Benton wrote that, “this scene represents the last steam thresher engine to be operated in Johnson County, N.E. Kansas.”
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