Thomas Hart Benton in Black and White: An American Story

On August 22, 2026, Circle Auction will present Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton: The Clarence R. Decker Collection, a focused sale that brings together the work of one of America’s most recognizable Regionalist artists with the story of a collector who knew him personally.

The collection was assembled by Dr. Clarence R. Decker, president of the University of Kansas City, now the University of Missouri, Kansas City, from 1938 to 1953. During his tenure, Decker helped expand the university while also building a cultural program that brought artists and other prominent figures to campus. Thomas Hart Benton was among them, and his relationship with Clarence and Mary Decker extended beyond university events. Benton was welcomed into their home, and that friendship survives in the collection through inscriptions addressed to “Deck” and Mary.

Preserved by the Decker family for roughly 60 to 80 years, the collection now comes to market with a provenance that gives many of these familiar Benton images a distinctly personal dimension.

Featured Auction Estimates: 

The Race, 1942 (Lot 26)
One of the auction’s leading lots, The Race captures the energy Benton could coax from black-and-white lithography. A horse races alongside a steam train beneath a dark, smoke-filled sky, transforming an everyday rural sight into something almost cinematic.

Benton described horses racing steam trains as a once-common scene and noted that the image originated as a study for a painting from the early 1940s. Issued in an edition of 250 and circulated by Associated American Artists, this impression is especially notable for its pencil inscription, “To Mary & Deck.” Estimated at $8,000–$12,000, the work combines a classic Benton subject with a direct connection to the artist’s friendship with the Deckers.

Wreck of the Ol’ 97, 1944 (Lot 33)
Benton often drew inspiration from American folklore, popular music, and storytelling, and Wreck of the Ol’ 97 brings all three together. The composition depicts the tense moment before a locomotive disaster, with the train barreling forward as a horse-drawn wagon crosses its path.

The subject comes from the widely known folk song about the wreck of Southern Railway’s Fast Mail train No. 97. Benton’s drawing for the composition dated to the winter of 1926–27, decades before the lithograph was produced. Like The Race, this edition-of-250 impression is inscribed “To Mary & Deck,” giving the dramatic image a personal provenance within the collection. It carries an estimate of $5,000–$7,000.

After the Blow, 1946 (Lot 40)
Not every Benton landscape is rooted in the Midwest. In After the Blow, the artist turns to Martha’s Vineyard, where a hurricane drove a schooner ashore during the early 1940s. Benton depicts the vessel pitching in turbulent water as a lifeline is thrown toward the men still aboard.

The churning waves and sweeping sky make the lithograph one of the collection’s most dramatic compositions, demonstrating how effectively Benton translated movement and atmosphere into monochrome. Pencil-signed and issued in an edition of 250 through Associated American Artists, After the Blow is estimated at $5,000–$7,000.

Spring Tryout, 1943 (Lot 31)
There is humor as well as nostalgia in Spring Tryout. Benton explained that the scene recalled a boyhood adventure in which he and another boy took an old horse for a spring ride—only for the suddenly energetic animal to send Benton sliding off its tail.

That personal memory becomes a lively rural scene, with the horse and rider racing across an undulating landscape beneath Benton’s characteristic rolling clouds. The lithograph, from an edition of 250, is pencil-signed and inscribed “To Mary & Deck.” Estimated at $3,000–$4,000, it is another example of how the Decker provenance adds intimacy to an already autobiographical image.

The Farmer’s Daughter, 1944 (Lot 32)
Benton returned repeatedly to the farms, workers, and landscapes of the Midwest. The Farmer’s Daughter presents a tenant farmer’s house in northwest Missouri, based on an original drawing Benton made in 1940.

The farmhouse, garden, figures, animals, and expansive sky create a scene that feels both specific and emblematic of rural American life. This impression is pencil-signed and carries one of the collection’s most personal inscriptions: “To Deck and Mary from Tom.” From an edition of 250, the lithograph is estimated at $3,000–$4,000.

A Collection Shaped by Friendship

What distinguishes the Clarence R. Decker Collection is not simply the opportunity to acquire Benton lithographs that have remained together for generations. It is the relationship behind them. The inscriptions scattered throughout the collection transform these works from examples of Benton’s printmaking into records of a friendship between an artist and a Kansas City educator and patron.

That connection is particularly meaningful given Decker’s role in bringing artists and cultural leaders to the University of Kansas City, and Benton’s own deep ties to Missouri. After decades in the same family, the collection offers bidders the chance to become the next custodians of works whose histories are unusually close to the artist himself.

Lithographs of Thomas Hart Benton: The Clarence R. Decker Collection will be offered by Circle Auction on August 22, 2026. Register to bid on Bidsquare.com.