 Fig 9. Thomas Hart Benton, 1889-1975 The Prodigal Son, 1936, lithograph Brauer Museum of Art, |
Alienation also looms in Thomas Hart Benton's
retelling of the parable of a prodigal son, who has returned to the broken-down hovel of
his childhood home (fig. 9). Victim of the dustbowl and the economic depression of the
1930s, Benton's prodigal may have left the failing homestead to find his fortune. He
returns to his place of origin in search of something irreplaceable, but finds it
destroyed. The wayward son is deprived of home, the place where the prodigal would secure
the affirmation of his progress in the world, and is instead greeted by the sun-scorched
skeleton of the fatted calf and the broken remains of his father's house. ...[continue] |