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Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975) Fire in the Barnyard, 1944 Lithograph on light tan paper 8 ½” x 13 ¼” (image) Edition of 250   Pencil-signed to the bottom right margin. Circulated by Associated American Artists, New York City. The sheet measures 11 ½” x 15 ¼” and the glazed frame measures 19" x 23".   Of Fire in the Barnyard, Benton wrote: “This picture was made from a memory of my childhood. My grandfather "Pappy" Wise had a cotton farm a few miles, 5 or 6, out of Waxahachie, Texas and one night when I was about 7 or 8 yrs old a great light appeared in the sky. It was so great that speculation about the end of the world was bruited about among the grown folks at the farm. As it turned out a straw stack had caught fire on an adjoining farm and some small tool sheds and part of a fence was burned. We all visited the place next morning and heard tell of how the farmer and his sons had got the scared horses out of the barn. Such things are immensely impressive to young'uns.”   Literature: Creekmore Fath, The Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton, 2001 (third edition), University of Texas Press/ Alan Wofsy Fine Arts (San Francisco), 64.