Thoms Hart Benton (1889 – 1975)
Among Benton’s most important easel paintings, Persephone recasts an ancient Greek myth in a contemporary, rural guise. The myth accounts for changes in the seasons. Famously beautiful, Persephone was abducted by Hades, lord of the dead, who imprisoned her in the underworld. Provisionally released after her father Zeus intervened, Persephone was required to return to the underworld for one-third of every year. Her mother Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, was so saddened and angered over her daughter’s fate that she refused to allow crops and vegetation to grow during these four months.
Benton’s Persephone appears as a farm girl caught sunbathing. Hades is shown as a lustful, aging farmer, his rickety cart in the background alluding to the god’s chariot. The farmer’s facial features appear similar to Benton’s own, although he used another man for his model. The natural setting on the banks of a creek suggests an arcadian landscape as well as the traditional venue for skinny-dipping. Shamelessly naked, Persephone evokes the Old Master tradition of the female nude as well as 1930s pin-ups.
– Nelson Atkins Museum Kansas City
