id: 159275 accession number: 1995.70 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1995.70 updated: 2023-03-15 15:46:24.603000 G.O.P. Convention, Cleveland, 1936. Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975). Pen and brush and black ink and black crayon, with graphite; image: 35.6 x 51.5 cm (14 x 20 1/4 in.); sheet: 37.4 x 53.2 cm (14 3/4 x 20 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1995.70 Art © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY title: G.O.P. Convention, Cleveland title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1936 creation date earliest: 1936 creation date latest: 1936 current location: creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: Art © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY --- culture: America, 20th century technique: pen and brush and black ink and black crayon, with graphite department: Drawings collection: DR - American 20th Century type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975) - artist --- measurements: Image: 35.6 x 51.5 cm (14 x 20 1/4 in.); Sheet: 37.4 x 53.2 cm (14 3/4 x 20 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: creme(2) wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: signed, lower right, in black ink: Benton translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: American Drawings from the Permanent Collection opening date: 1998-04-19T00:00:00 American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Private Collection, New York, NY date: by early 1950s-before 1995 footnotes: citations: (Jordan-Volpe Gallery, Inc., New York, NY) date: ?-1995 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: December 4, 1995 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Thomas Hart Benton was a lifelong Democrat, which may have informed the focus on drama and disorder throughout his drawings of the Republican National Convention. digital description: Thomas Hart Benton traveled to Cleveland during the summer of 1936 to attend the Republican National Convention and record its events through sketches. This drawing shows delegates engaged in a variety of activities, included whispered deal making and a scuffle that attracts the attention of a policeman. Benton used areas of crosshatching, parallel lines, and subtle shading to create a sense of drama, reducing the crowd of onlookers to a regular pattern of circular marks. The series of drawings was likely intended for reproduction in magazines, such as Life, although only one was ultimately published, in the journal Common Sense. Benton's dynamic and easily legible style lent itself to such illustrations and characterized the many depictions of American life that he made around this period. wall description: Missouri-based Benton, a distant relative of the 19th-century US senator who was his namesake, traveled to Cleveland during the summer of 1936 to make reportorial sketches of the Republican National Convention. In this dynamically rendered drawing, the artist recorded delegates engaged in a variety of activities, including whispered deal making and a spirited scuffle that attracts the ready attention of a policeman. Ultimately, the nomination was won by Alf Landon, who subsequently was defeated in the presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” December 20, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr4002 "Museum Acquisitions." Drawing 17, nos. 4-6 (November 1995 - March 1996): 105. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 105 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 10, December 1996 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 7 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1996-10/page/6 DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. page number: Mentioned: pp. 258-258, pp. 297-298; Reproduced: p. 259 url: Mazow, Leo G. Thomas Hart Benton and the American Sound. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. page number: Mentioned: pp. 65-67; Reproduced: p. 66 url: --- IMAGES