Thomas H. Benton, "Departure of the Joads"

Lithograph on paper of a group of people loading a truck on the countryside. It is nighttime and a crescent moon is in the sky behind a few clouds. There is a small cabin in the background on the left.

"Departure of the Joads" lithograph by Thomas H. Benton dates from 1939. This print is from The Grapes of Wrath series, and it shows the Joad family departing drought-stricken Oklahoma for a better life in California. Thomas Hart Benton (1888-1975) was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement, and often depicted quotidian life in the United States.