Jefferson City & Thomas H. Benton, the artist

Last week my partner and I had the opportunity to visit Jefferson City/MO, Capitol Building. We arrived just on time for the tour set time which included only the two of us and the guide woman.
I was eager to see the much talked murals. I was unprepared though, and much to my deepest delight,
to see the amount of artwork that covers almost every inch of the building walls. All of them impressive in their own way. The one that made a huge impression on me was the House Lounge room where you view the work of Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975. American painter & muralist who was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement)- titled "A Social History of Missouri".

When commissioned to do this work (1935), he was asked to create a mural that represented the main figures of social political life. Benton, being an activist artist, decided to work on daily issues of the time as experienced by the state of Missouri.

For years legislators tried to destroy the work by spitting on it, scratching its surface, pushing cigarettes buds onto it. They were outraged.
But at the end, the murals endured & prevailed and legislators had to accept that the murals were paid by the citizens of Missouri's money and it was there to stay.
The entire work is done on egg tempera.