PRINT
Oprah's Hawaiian Home
Once an ordinary little gray ranch that Oprah considered tearing down is now transformed into the perfect 21st-century farmhouse.
O, The Oprah Magazine  |  From the Summer 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
'The Waterboy' by Thomas Hart Benton Photo by Michel Arnaud, styling by Carlos Mota


A strong connection to her past drew Oprah to The Waterboy, a 1946 masterpiece by the famous American painter Thomas Hart Benton. It's one of her most recent purchases and one of the most dramatic. "He's like someone I knew growing up," she says of the painting's plaid-shirted, straw-hatted young man. "I bought him because I loved him." Now in the dining room, his presence powerful and alive, The Waterboy is like a welcome old friend.

On the 18th-century English dresser, which still retains its original blue paint, a cluster of multicolored French Jaspé pottery pitchers stands between two brass candlesticks housed in 19th-century glass hurricanes.



Art © T.H. Benton and R.P. Benton Testamentary Trusts/UMB Bank Trustee/Licensed by Vaga, New York, NY.
Printed from Oprah.com on Thursday, May 23, 2013
© 2013 OWN, LLC. All Rights Reserved