Thomas Hart Benton 1889 - 1975

American Tobacco Company, Durham, North Carolina (commissioned from the artist)
Park Avenue Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1966

Tobacco Leaves belongs to a series of paintings that Benton produced for the American Tobacco Company between 1941 and 1943. He was one of several American artists commissioned by the company's president, George Washington Hill, to create compositions portraying the entire process of tobacco production. Many of the enlisted artists, including Benton, were sent to tobacco farms in southern Georgia as well as North and South Carolina to witness these scenes firsthand. The tobacco paintings were illustrated as advertisements for Lucky Strike throughout 1942 and 1943, and appeared in such prominent American publications as Life and Time magazines.