The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975)

Down on her knees before him
She humbly begged for life
But into her snowy bosom
He plunged the fatal knife.
“Oh, Edward, I forgive you,
Although this be my last breath.
For I never have deceived you,”
Then she closed her eyes in death.
-Excerpt from the ballad
In Ballad of the Jealous Lover, musicians bring to life a folksong of violence and betrayal, suggesting the power of folk music and vernacular storytelling in the American imagination. In the ballad, Edward stabs his lover in a jealous rage only to discover too late that he has doubted her unjustly.
Benton, Grant Wood from Iowa, and John Steuart Curry from Kansas became known as Regionalist artists, producing imagery that was typically Midwestern in subject, but archetypically “American” in content. Benton observed and mythologized the heroes, outlaws, tragedies, and traditions of American folk life, finding universal themes in local culture. His interests can be appreciated as part of a national phenomenon that took place amidst the crisis of the Great Depression, when many sought out a usable interpretation of America’s past. This resurgent interest in American history and folklore provided assurance that the nation possessed the ability to rebound from tragedy. Benton argued that Regionalist art “symbolized aesthetically what the majority of Americans had in mind - America itself.”