Jessie and Jake

• The artist said about this painting: “Our shepherd dog Jake impersonated the wolf in this Red Riding Hood theme. The area depicted is in our wood lot on Martha’s Vineyard and shows a path leading to my mother’s place there.”

• Benton’s daughter, Jessie, was the model for his “Little Red Riding Hood” figure and was three years old at the time. The three trees in the painting are clues to her age.

• When dog Jake died in 1945, Benton wrote a biographical obituary, which appeared in the Vineyard Gazette. The artist recalled: “He was named Jake because he was a country dog, a country jake, who hadn’t learned city ways.”