Thomas Hart Benton

(American, 1889-1975)

Jessie and Jake, 1942

Lithograph on paper

10" x 13 ½" (image)

Edition of 250

Pencil-signed to the bottom right margin. Circulated by Associated American Artists, New York City. Not framed, matted to 18" x 14". The sheet measures 17" x 12 ½".

Of Jessie and Jake, Benton wrote: “Painting of this subject made in 1941 when daughter Jessie was three yrs old. Our shepherd dog Jake impersonated the wolf in this Red Riding Hood theme. The area depicted is in our wood lot on Martha's Vineyard and shows a path leading to my mother's place there. Trees, white oak, grow thick at the trunk but do not get very high on our part of the island because of the winds. Painting in my possession. Litho was made from it at request of A.A.A."

Literature: Creekmore Fath, The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, 2001 (third edition), University of Texas Press/ Alan Wofsy Fine Arts (San Francisco), 55.

Good condition, noting some scattered minor smudging and faint spots in the margins. The sheet is not laid down. Aging to the mat.