GENERAL DESCRIPTION
George Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio, and there attended Ohio State University (1901-04) before leaving his senior year to study art in New York. He gave up a promising career in baseball to pursue his first love, art. Sports became a primary theme in his work, but he was also well known for painting landscapes, portraits and figure compositions with vitality and strong emotion.
Arriving in New York City in 1904, he enrolled in William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art where he was an enthusiastic student of Robert Henri, who stressed the importance of capturing direct observations on canvas and working rapidly in paint so as not to lose the immediate response to a subject. He also studied briefly with John Sloan, Hardesty Gillmore Maratta, and Jay Hambridge, whose theories of geometric harmony had considerable influence on his thinking. Bellows's bold brushwork and dark, glowing color take their cues from his study of Édouard Manet and Frans Hals, as does his interest in portraiture. He was closely associated with the Ashcan School, whose members chose socially charged urban scenes for their subjects.
His early paintings of the Hudson River and New York bridges show brilliance of execution, but his boxing scenes and depictions of city life were more popular. Throughout his early work Bellows chose themes that had been treated earlier by Thomas Eakins, though they differed in their approaches to realism. Eakins' scenes of masculine athleticism emphasize stability and stillness, while Bellows' art heightens the subject's action and violent emotion. Bellows' famous painting, Both Members of This Club (1909), which depicts a boxing match, echoes Eakins' depictions of the same subject but asserts the men's movement and forcefulness rather than precise anatomical details. Bellows' Forty-Two Kids (1907) is a variation of Eakins' The Swimming Hole (1885), but Bellows' attention to capturing motion makes Eakins' swimmers look more traditional in comparison.
Bellows first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1906 and won the coveted Hallgarten Prize two years later. In 1909 he became the youngest Associate in the Academy's history, participated in the Exhibition of Independent Artists, and began teaching Life and Composition classes at the Art Students League. In 1913 he assisted in the organization of the Armory Show, and exhibited six paintings and eight drawings in the exhibition. Bellows began executing lithographs in 1916, and they number among some of his most effective works. The technique lent itself well to his expressive drawing style, and as a printmaker Bellows often created morbid, despairing images reminiscent of the graphic work of Francisco Goya.
He spent most of his life in New York searching the slums and parks as well as the fashionable sections for material for his work. During the summer months, Bellows and his family lived in various places in New England and in 1922 they built a second home in Woodstock, New York. In his later career, Bellows' moved away from his earlier preoccupation with urban motifs and his paintings became simpler, more monumental, and sensitive. As illustrated by Emma in a Purple Dress (1920-1923, 1956.58), his primary themes during this period were family, pastoral, and literary subjects.
Adapted from
- Steven A. Nash, Dallas Collects American Paintings: Colonial to Early Modern: An Exhibition of Paintings from Private Collections in Dallas (Dallas Museum of Fine Arts: Dallas, TX), 107.
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, "George Bellows, Emma in a Purple Dress," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 249.
- "Biographies of American Artists," DMA research document, n.d., Education Files.
- P.F.R., DMA research document, n.d., Collections Records Object File.
NOTES
I changed the status of this note from routed to completed- June 14, 2016.
Adding "draft" tag back to note, Dec 19, 2016, as part of the revised harvest/route procedure. This note will be pulled into GDrive and manually moved to Queta's folders for final review. Update- January 18, 2017- Adding #routed tag so that I can easily keep track of this note in Evernote to confirm that it is eventually pushed into GDrive. As of January 18, 2017 the content is in Brain but not in GDrive so I am unable to finish revisions and mark it complete in Evernote or move the GDoc to Queta's folder.
Confirmed note updated in GDrive. Tagged completed and moved GDoc to Queta folder. (1/24/2017)
How to link the image of Emma in a Purple Dress? Is this necessary if the biography is connected to all works by the artist?
I am removing the TMS tags from this object note- 1937.8; 1956.58; 1960.124; 1977.103;
Added artist geographies:
August 19, 1882 to January 8, 1925
Trained in Columbus Ohio 1901-1904- attended Ohio State University but left his senior year
Trained in NYC- 1904-enrolled in William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art where Robert Henri was his teacher. Fellow students included Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. Other instruction from John Sloan, Hardesty Gillmore Maratta, and Jay Hambridge
Worked in Chicago- 1919- taught at the Art Institute of Chicago
Worked in- Monhegan Island, Maine- 1911-1916- annual trips following the practice of Robert Henri. Also working in Matinicus Islands, Maine.
Worked in- Woodstock, NY- other artists living ni the area included Leon Kroll, Charles Rosen, and Eugene Speicher
ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
Thomas Eakins, Swimming, 1885. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 248949467: UMO
WEB RESOURCES
- George Bellows~Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 15, 2012 to February 18, 2013.
- The Art of Boxing~Watch this video made in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2012).
- George Bellows, Both Members of this Club, 1909~Check out this iconic Bellows painting in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
- George Bellows, Forty-Two Kids, 1907~Look at Bellows's modern adaptation of an earlier, important demonstration of American realism, Thomas Eakins' Swimming (1885).
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
During the period of nine years, from when he started lithography in 1916 until his death in 1925, George Bellows made an estimated eight thousand impressions of his prints.
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General Description
George Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio, and there attended Ohio State University (1901-04) before leaving his senior year to study art in New York. He gave up a promising career in baseball to pursue his first love, art. Sports became a primary theme in his work, but he was also well known for painting landscapes, portraits and figure compositions with vitality and strong emotion.
Arriving in New York City in 1904, he enrolled in William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art where he was an enthusiastic student of Robert Henri, who stressed the importance of capturing direct observations on canvas and working rapidly in paint so as not to lose the immediate response to a subject. He also studied briefly with John Sloan, Hardesty Gillmore Maratta, and Jay Hambridge, whose theories of geometric harmony had considerable influence on his thinking. Bellows's bold brushwork and dark, glowing color take their cues from his study of Édouard Manet and Frans Hals, as does his interest in portraiture. He was closely associated with the Ashcan School, whose members chose socially charged urban scenes for their subjects.
His early paintings of the Hudson River and New York bridges show brilliance of execution, but his boxing scenes and depictions of city life were more popular. Throughout his early work Bellows chose themes that had been treated earlier by Thomas Eakins, though they differed in their approaches to realism. Eakins' scenes of masculine athleticism emphasize stability and stillness, while Bellows' art heightens the subject's action and violent emotion. Bellows' famous painting, Both Members of This Club (1909), which depicts a boxing match, echoes Eakins' depictions of the same subject but asserts the men's movement and forcefulness rather than precise anatomical details. Bellows' Forty-Two Kids (1907) is a variation of Eakins' The Swimming Hole (1885), but Bellows' attention to capturing motion makes Eakins' swimmers look more traditional in comparison.
Bellows first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1906 and won the coveted Hallgarten Prize two years later. In 1909 he became the youngest Associate in the Academy's history, participated in the Exhibition of Independent Artists, and began teaching Life and Composition classes at the Art Students League. In 1913 he assisted in the organization of the Armory Show, and exhibited six paintings and eight drawings in the exhibition. Bellows began executing lithographs in 1916, and they number among some of his most effective works. The technique lent itself well to his expressive drawing style, and as a printmaker Bellows often created morbid, despairing images reminiscent of the graphic work of Francisco Goya.
He spent most of his life in New York searching the slums and parks as well as the fashionable sections for material for his work. During the summer months, Bellows and his family lived in various places in New England and in 1922 they built a second home in Woodstock, New York. In his later career, Bellows' moved away from his earlier preoccupation with urban motifs and his paintings became simpler, more monumental, and sensitive. As illustrated by Emma in a Purple Dress (1920-1923, 1956.58), his primary themes during this period were family, pastoral, and literary subjects.
Adapted from
- Steven A. Nash, Dallas Collects American Paintings: Colonial to Early Modern: An Exhibition of Paintings from Private Collections in Dallas (Dallas Museum of Fine Arts: Dallas, TX), 107.
- Eleanor Jones Harvey, "George Bellows, Emma in a Purple Dress," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 249.
- "Biographies of American Artists," DMA research document, n.d., Education Files.
- P.F.R., DMA research document, n.d., Collections Records Object File.
Fun Facts
During the period of nine years, from when he started lithography in 1916 until his death in 1925, George Bellows made an estimated eight thousand impressions of his prints.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- George Bellows~Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 15, 2012 to February 18, 2013.
- The Art of Boxing~Watch this video made in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2012).
- George Bellows, Both Members of this Club, 1909~Check out this iconic Bellows painting in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
- George Bellows, Forty-Two Kids, 1907~Look at Bellows's modern adaptation of an earlier, important demonstration of American realism, Thomas Eakins' Swimming (1885).
Notes
I changed the status of this note from routed to completed- June 14, 2016.
Adding "draft" tag back to note, Dec 19, 2016, as part of the revised harvest/route procedure. This note will be pulled into GDrive and manually moved to Queta's folders for final review. Update- January 18, 2017- Adding #routed tag so that I can easily keep track of this note in Evernote to confirm that it is eventually pushed into GDrive. As of January 18, 2017 the content is in Brain but not in GDrive so I am unable to finish revisions and mark it complete in Evernote or move the GDoc to Queta's folder.
Confirmed note updated in GDrive. Tagged completed and moved GDoc to Queta folder. (1/24/2017)
How to link the image of Emma in a Purple Dress? Is this necessary if the biography is connected to all works by the artist?
I am removing the TMS tags from this object note- 1937.8; 1956.58; 1960.124; 1977.103;
Added artist geographies:
August 19, 1882 to January 8, 1925
Trained in Columbus Ohio 1901-1904- attended Ohio State University but left his senior year
Trained in NYC- 1904-enrolled in William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art where Robert Henri was his teacher. Fellow students included Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. Other instruction from John Sloan, Hardesty Gillmore Maratta, and Jay Hambridge
Worked in Chicago- 1919- taught at the Art Institute of Chicago
Worked in- Monhegan Island, Maine- 1911-1916- annual trips following the practice of Robert Henri. Also working in Matinicus Islands, Maine.
Worked in- Woodstock, NY- other artists living ni the area included Leon Kroll, Charles Rosen, and Eugene Speicher
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