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In the fall of 1935, when she was married with two small children at home, Margot Peet enrolled in painting classes taught by the famous Regionalist painter, Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) at the Kansas City Art Institute. Although she was by far the oldest student in his classes (she was in her 30s), and came from a much wealthier background than most of Benton's pupils, Margot Peet rolled up her sleeves and worked alongside the eighteen-year-olds like a fellow craftsman-- never insisting upon special consideration. Under Benton's guidance, Margot Peet produced her first multi-figural compositions, her first genre scenes (subjects drawn from everyday life), and her first paintings in egg tempera, a quick-drying medium using egg yolk as the binder. Benton painted in class alongside his students who produced "versions" of his subjects from slightly different angles. In 1939, Margot Peet painted a small version of Benton's famous nude, Persephone (the goddess of Springtime), which is now one of the highlights of the American painting collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Her painting, Do Unto Others, is a version of Benton's well-known work, Instruction, which he painted at the Art Institute in 1940. Benton required his students to paint out-of-class assignments that were drawn from personal experience and based on sketches made from life. Margot Peet produced two such paintings -- Exercise Class and Culture. In Culture, the bored faces of the mothers border on caricature -- a skill Margot Peet developed with Benton's encouragement. |
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