Thomas Hart Benton
1889–1975
Susanna and the Elders, 1938
Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on panel
Thomas Hart Benton’s Susanna and the Elders is derived from an Apocryphal biblical narrative in which two elders trap Susanna, a married woman, while she is bathing. When she refuses their sexual advances, they falsely accuse her of adultery. Susanna’s life is spared only when the prophet Daniel obtains conflicting statements from her accusers, who are then sentenced to death. By depicting his subjects as contemporary Missourians (the figure with a mustache is a self-portrait of the artist), Benton transformed this story into a critique of what he perceived as the moral hypocrisy and repressed sexuality of Bible Belt religions.
Although European old masters such as Rembrandt also depicted Susanna nude, Benton’s version has pubic hair, a detail typically omitted both in American fine art and in popular culture, including contemporaneous pinup models. Benton’s image challenges viewers to define the distinctions between fine art and popular art and between the nude and the naked.
