Benton was one of the most important painters of the American Scene movement. His signature works were Regionalist images depicting life in America, especially laboring figures in the Midwest.

In this portrait, the undulating lines typical of Benton’s style predominate. The furrows of the worker’s face resemble those frequently found in the skies and terrain of his landscape paintings.

Aaron was made in Benton’s most prolific period of printmaking, during which he also created lithographic illustrations for Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.