Thomas Hart Benton was born on April 15, 1889, on a farm at Neosho, Mo. He was named for his grand-uncle, a United States senator from Missouri. His father, Maecenas E. Benton, was a lawyer and a United States congressman.

When he was 16 years old, Benton left home and took a job as a newspaper cartoonist in Joplin, Mo. In 1906 and 1907 he attended the Art Institute of Chicago. The next three years he studied in Paris, France, at the Académie Julien. There, and later in New York City, he experimented with new painting styles, including murals. After serving in the Navy during World War I as an architectural draftsman, his interest turned to a realistic art style.

Benton married Rita Piacenza in 1922. They had two children, Thomas and Jessie. In his autobiography, ‘An Artist in America' (1937), Benton describes long trips he made, on foot or by car, through the Middle West, the South, and the Far West, sketching people and scenes. From 1935 until 1941 Benton was director of the department of painting at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Benton won acclaim for his murals. While in New York City he painted murals for the Whitney Museum of American Art. For the Century of Progress world's fair in Chicago he did ‘History of Indiana' (now at Indiana University). He painted ‘History of Missouri' for the Missouri State Capitol. He depicted regional history in murals for the New York State Power Authority and for the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Mo. Months of work preceded the painting of one of Benton's murals. After painstaking historical research, he made a three-dimensional clay model and also prepared full-sized detail drawings.

Benton's paintings of rural life won prizes in many exhibits. Among the best known of his paintings are ‘Cotton Pickers', ‘Lonesome Road', ‘The Meal', ‘Homestead', and ‘Susanna and the Elders'.