I
born April 15, 1889, Neosho, Mo., U.S.
died Jan. 19, 1975, Kansas City, Mo.
U.S. painter and muralist.
He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he came into contact with Synchromism and Cubism . In 1912 he returned to the U.S. and settled in New York City. Failing in his attempts at Modernism, he set out to travel through the rural heartland, sketching people and places. In the 1930s he painted several notable murals, including America Today (1930–31) at the New School for Social Research. He often transposed biblical and classical stories to rural American settings, as in Susanna and the Elders (1938). His style, which quickly became influential, is characterized by undulating forms, cartoonlike figures, and brilliant colour. He taught at the Art Students League in New York, where Jackson Pollock was his best-known student.
II
born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, N.C., U.S.
died April 10, 1858, Washington, D.C.
U.S. politician.
After moving to St. Louis, Mo. (1815), he became editor of the St. Louis Enquirer . Appealing to agrarian and commercial interests, he won election to the U.S. Senate in 1820. He became a crusader for the distribution of public lands to settlers and was soon acknowledged as the chief spokesman in the Senate of the early Democratic Party. His opposition to the extension of slavery into the West cost him his Senate seat in 1851, though he later served in the House of Representatives (1853–55). His grandnephew was the artist Thomas Hart Benton .