173

Discusses three of his paintings and makes sketch of one

Thomas Hart Benton

Illustrated Autograph Letter Signed, "Tom," with small ink drawing, to "Dear Charley & Blanche,"

thanking for sending an [auction] catalogue in which his After Many Days (1940) was sold, remarking that the price was disappointing but explaining why he was not surprised, remarking that he had confused this painting with a later one having a similar title (After Many Springs [1945]), explaining that the scene of the latter painting is the exposure of a long-forgotten suicide, complaining of exhaustion after having quickly both designed a painting [The Kentuckian (1954), commissioned to publicize the film of the same name] and painted the portrait of Burt Lancaster, and, in a postscript: "Don't remember original sale price of 'After Many Days'." The drawing, a sketch depicting his painting After Many Springs, at lower left of first page, 3¼x2½ inches. 2 pages, 4to, written on recto and verso of single sheet, personal stationery; horizontal folds, faint toning at lower edge.

Kansas City, 1 November 1954.

  • Notes: ". . . I was mistaken about the picture. There is another one with the same title which was sold in 1946 in Chicago. The one in the sale I had completely forgotten--so completely that I gave a later picture the same title--or so similar that when you gave me the name of the currently catalogued picture I identified it with the one sold in Chicago which is called 'After Many Springs'--and has, as indicated [arrow pointing to illustration] a man & mule in the background, at their spring plowing, and a skull and old rusted out pistol in the foreground under deep foliage. The idea was of an old and forgotten suicide. No doubt that idea was forming itself when I made 'After Many Days'.
    "I was mildly disappointed in the sale price . . . pictures with realistic skulls, like pictures with realistic snakes, are hard to move.
    "I am up to my neck in labor . . . . I've had to design a complicated big picture in two weeks time so I could have it ready, and in correct scale, for a portrait of Burt Lancaster, who acts the part of the chief character. Burt was here yesterday and I got his portrait . . . ."
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April 9, 2026 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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