Thomas Hart Benton The new Proprietors ink and wash on paper
Auction Date: December 18, 2020
Estimate: Estimate: 7000 - 10000
Sold for: $7,800
Lot: 5042
(American 1889-1975)
The New Proprietors
ink and wash on paper,
sheet: 11.125 x 14.125 inches / 28.26 x 35.87 cm Frame: 16 3/8 x 18 1/2 inches,
signed in ink lower left: Thomas H. Benton dedication in ink lower left: The New Proprietors / Huby and Gert Love Tom (Huby was Leo Hubermans nickname and Gert is short for Gertrude, Leos wife)
Provenance: The house depicted is a little fishermans cottage in Menemsha, MA (a small community on Marthas Vineyard Island which is part of the Township of Chilmark. My Uncle Leo and Aunt Gertrude purchased the property in 1945, long before Marthas Vineyard became a very exclusive, expensive vacation area. At the time they bought it, it had no indoor plumbing and very little interior space. Over the years downstairs and upstairs bathrooms were added, dormers were built onto the attic to create space for two small bedrooms, and a small guest cabin was constructed to the side of the house.
Leo and Gert spent many summers there, often commuting back and forth as work demanded between the Vineyard and their main home in New York City. There is a much larger house next door which was purchased shortly before Leo and Gert bought theirs. It was owned by Sarah Greenebaum, a very dear friend of theirs, and over the summers a colony of intellectuals and artists (including Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, E.Y.Harburg, Leonard Bernstein and many others) frequented both houses, generating a communal atmosphere that was actually documented by Sarah in an on-again off-again journal of the goings-on during the summers of 1953-1958.
Thomas Hart Benton was a close friend of Leo and Gerts, and he illustrated Leos book We The People (published in 1932). Benton also owned a house in Chilmark and produced many paintings and drawings featuring Vineyard landscapes and characters. He was a part of the above mentioned group that had formed on the island and it was only natural for him to stop by Leo and Gerts new house and do this portrait of them and the house.
Leo always treasured the drawing and it sometimes traveled with him to New York in the winters but was always hanging over the fireplace in the tiny living room of the Vineyard house in the summers. That house and the ability it gave Leo to share its beautiful location with others gave him great joy.