Portrait of Judge Brown Harris

After dabbling in many styles including Impressionism and Abstraction, Thomas Hart Benton chose American Regionalism, in which he became a key figure. American Regionalism is a style and subject matter uniquely and intentionally American: it portrays the laboring class of society, local characters, and the American scenes of rural life and ordinary people. Judge Brown Harris was a circuit judge in Kansas City, Missouri, for 24 years. A decade after the sitter’s death in 1948, this portrait was installed in the courtroom over which the judge had presided.