BENTON FRANCIS SCOTT - Artist 1907 - 1983.
Benton Scott studied and painted in France starting in 1928. He was influenced by French Impressionist painters Manet, Degas, Picassaro and others. Benton was a great artist and a very colorful character like many of the Impressionist painters.
I met Benton Scott outside his home in North Hollywood, California along with his son Bob in l946, I was 7 years old. Throughout the years Bob and I remained best friends and I spent many times with Benton in his studio over his garage when he would return from France and was finishing and preparing his paintings for exhibition. I can still smell the turpentine and see the many famous Hollywood stars and personalities who came to visit and see his paintings.
In l967 the famous W&J Sloan Gallery, Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, held a showing of Benton’s work entitled “BENTON SCOTT - Recent paintings from France, Exhibition December l967.” The brochure cover painting was of Le Porte D’Audierne. I visited this site on the Brittany coast and I own this painting.
1964
Listed are many exhibitions and awards for Benton Scott including the Grande Palais in Paris, Metropolitan Museum in New York, Francis Taylor Galleries in Beverly Hills and many more. The W&J brochure states: “Paintings of Benton Scott are in the collections of Mr. Frank Sinatra, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cummings, Mr. David Selznick, Elizabeth Taylor...”
Benton painted a wide variety of sites and subjects. This painting of Montmartre was done in l949. Montmartre was the area where many French painters lived and painted. The “Place de Tertre” is my favorite.
1949
Benton was known for painting circus clowns and their surroundings such as the Cirque Medrano in Paris.
My clown painting by Benton is titled “Emil Grock.”
Due to Benton’s influence I visit France every year. He painted in Paris, out to the Brittany coast, down to the
Dordogne, over to Marseille and back. I have visited many of the sites where Benton painted and even stayed in an apartment on the Ile St. Louis depicted in the 1968 painting “La Seine de Paris.” Benton was a great artist and a very colorful character like many of the Impressionist painters. He died in 1983.