Spring on the Missouri (1937) by Thomas Hart Benton

In 1937 Thomas Hart Benton visited areas of Southeast Missouri ravaged by flood. In the artist’s own words: “The roads of the flood country were full of movers. Every once in a while seepage from under the levee would force evacuation of a house and you would see a great struggle to get animals and goods out of the rising water.” In his painting Spring on the Missouri, he re-imagined the scene as epic theater, symbolic of man’s never-ending struggle with the forces of nature.