Jackson Lee Nesbitt

Who was Jackson Lee Nesbitt?

Jackson Lee Nesbitt was an American artist. Nesbitt was born in McAlester, Oklahoma and studied at the Kansas City Art Institute off and on from 1933 to 1941, working primarily with famed Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton and printmaker John de Martelly. Though they were very different in age, Nesbitt and Benton were also friends who traveled and sketched together often—and the art they created was very similar. When financial necessity forced Nesbitt to give up his art for a successful career in the advertising industry to provide for his family, Nesbitt did not speak with Benton for many years out of embarrassment. Nevertheless, Benton, and his wife Rita, always considered Nesbitt to be one of his finest students.