Gerrit Beneker

Gerrit Albertus Beneker (January 26, 1882 – October 23, 1934) was an American painter and illustrator best known for his paintings of industrial scenes and for his poster work in World War I.

Biography Beneker was born on January 26, 1882, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Bartel Albertus Beneker, who had immigrated from Serooskerke in the Netherlands, and Pauline Catherine Steketee. He first studied at the Chicago Art Institute, where his teachers included John Vanderpoel and Frederick Richardson; later he transferred to the Art Students League in New York. In September 1907 he married Flora Judd Van Vranken from Marcellus, New York, with whom he would have four children. although his work brought about frequent moves, he returned to the area in the summers and in 1920 bought a summer house in Truro, Massachusetts. It was in this period that he painted his most familiar work, "Sure We'll Finish the Job", which sold over three million copies.

Later Beneker spent four years painting workers of the Hydraulic Pressed Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio, as part of a labor-management relations improvement project;

He died on 23 October 1934 in Truro. His papers are held by the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution.

Analysis

Beneker's output was prodigious, with some five hundred works in oil produced over a thirty-year period, exclusive of his many illustrations. His industrial paintings toured the country, and Beneker was in great demand as a lecturer.

In addition, Beneker's illustrations appeared in over eighty publications including Scientific American and Harper's Weekly. He was noted for his Ivory Soap advertisements.