Untitled, Portrait

Benham Carter Dangers was born in Ozark, Arkansas in 1916. In his early 20s, he attended Hendrix College to study Art and graduated in the spring of 1942. After leaving Hendrix, he earned a competitive scholarship to attend the Pratt Institute in New York but entered the United States Army before completing study there.

Dangers spent two years as a wartime artist in the Army during World War II, taking photographs for the Army archives and painting portraits, like this one, of soldiers in the Alaskan Defense. Dangers also completed publicity work for military newspapers in Fort Bliss, Texas.

After the war, Dangers finished his studies at the Pratt Institute before spending two years at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France. He then returned to the United States and split his time between New York City and Fort Smith, Arkansas.

In his early decades of artistic activity, Dangers was primarily known for his portraits, which offered a keen likeness of his subjects. In his later years, he turned to painting still lifes but retained his notable penchant for precision and realism.