Ms. Benton compares his role to that of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Ben Shahn, commissioned to document the need for New Deal farm programs in rural areas to which they were strangers.

WSJ: Roman Vishniac | Witness to Catastrophe | International Center of Photography | By William Meyers

The Sheldon's holdings sound a roll call of America's significant painters, from luminaries such as Albert Bierstadt, Willem de Kooning and Thomas Eakins to others such as Fairfield Porter, Maurice Prendergast and Ben Shahn.

WSJ: Fifty Has Seldom Looked So Good Bared | The Naked Museum | Sheldon Museum of Art | By Willard Spiegelman