In 1905, Gerrit Beneker began his art career as an illustrator.
He married Flora Judd, his high school sweetheart from Grand Rapids
and they moved to Brooklyn, NY. Gerrit's early passion was to
create an art that would inspire and provide honor to the workingman.
As such, he had no interest in painting portraits of pretty women,
which were so often seen on the magazine covers of the day. Rather
he wanted to seek out workingmen on the bridges, tunnels and skyscrapers
of NYC, and paint them in their environments. He completed over
150 magazine covers, numerous ads including many for Ivory Soap
and over 50 illustrations for magazine stories. Beneker was an
idealist and an optimist. His early work reflects his connection
to the hope and industrial energy of early 20th century America.
In 1912 Gerrit went to Provincetown to attend Charles Hawthorne's
painting classes. Art works done during the next few years, demonstrate
a skill in impressionist landscape techniques. Meanwhile, his
studio works retained a traditional, representational style and
he continued to do illustrations for the NYC art editors. Gerrit
was a founding member of the Provincetown Art Association and
was very active in the development of the art colony.
In 1918 Gerrit was asked to come to Washington DC to paint
posters for the US Navy. The objective of the assignment and the
posters was to foster support for the war effort among workingmen.
His most famous poster, "Sure We'll Finish the Job",
sold over 3 million copies.
The next year Hydraulic Pressed Steel Co., Cleveland, Ohio,
hired Beneker as an artist in residence. His job was to paint
the men in the factories and steel mills - to improve the relationship
of labor and management. The assignment lasted four years. The
family, now including four children, Katharine, Benson, Helen
and Jean, returned to Provincetown for the summers. In 1920 they
bought a summer home in Truro. They moved 21 times during Gerrit's
career.
The "Industrial" paintings, as they were known,
went on tour across the country for 12 years, until 1934 when
Gerrit died, and they were stored in the summer home. In the early
1920's Gerrit became known as the foremost painter of American
industry. Later he also painted on site at General Electric in
Schenectady, NY. and at Rohm & Haas in Philadelphia.
Beneker was primarily a man of ideas, believing as Ralph Waldo
Emerson did, that the highest purpose of art was to create character.
It is not possible to separate the art from his beliefs, as they
are one in the same. To promote his ideas and paintings, Gerrit
traveled across the country, giving over 200 lectures. Speaking
mostly on the role of art in our everyday lives, he would modify
the topic to fit his audience, resulting in talks such as "Art
in Business", "Art and Education", "Art as
a Constructive Force" and so forth.
Beneker's works were published in 80 plus publications, including
Scientific American, American Magazine of Art, Pearson's, The
Mentor, Baseball and Ambition magazines. Art works included the
opening of the Panama and Cape Cod canals, the building of the
Manhattan bridge, the laying of the Atlantic cable, and over 30
Baseball covers.
Beneker's works were shown in over 250 exhibits, from the
Midwest to the Northeast and Southern states. Nearly 90 magazine
and newspaper articles mention his artwork, many focusing on his
role as a champion of the workingman, and several written by Gerrit
himself.
Beneker painted about 500 oil paintings over his nearly 30
year career, not including those done for magazine illustrations.
His primary expertise lay in his portraits, which included not
only the industrials but also many paintings of friends and family
and several of Cape Cod fishermen. These represent about a third
of his paintings. His landscapes and marine paintings together
represent more than half of his painting and include a majority
of harbors scenes. He also painted around several still life pictures
and a few paintings of the mountains in New Hampshire and Vermont.
