| George Bellows | |
 George Bellows |
|
| Birth name | George Wesley Bellows |
| Born | August 12, or August 19, 1882 Columbus, Ohio |
| Died | January 8, 1925 (aged 42) New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Painting |
| Movement | Ashcan School, The Eight, American realism |
| Influenced by | Robert Henri |
George Wesley Bellows (August 12[1][2] or August 19[3][4][5], 1882 - January 8, 1925) was an American painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. Columbus is the Capital and the largest city of the US state of Ohio. Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The City of New York The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist Artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist Artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States Ashcan School American realism was a turn of the century idea in art music and literature that showed through these different types of work reflections of the time period Robert Henri ( June 25, 1865 - July 12, 1929) was an American painter notable for his teaching abilities and for leadership of the Events 1099 - First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon - Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid Events 43 BC - Octavian, later known as Augustus compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. Year 1882 ( MDCCCLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army Year 1925 ( MCMXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e The City of New York At a young age he was to become "the most acclaimed artist of his generation". [6]
Contents |
Youth
Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus is the Capital and the largest city of the US state of Ohio. He attended The Ohio State University from 1901 until 1904. The Ohio State University ( OSU) is a Coeducational public Research university in the state of Ohio. Year 1901 ( MCMI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on There he played for the baseball and basketball teams, and provided illustrations for the Makio, the school's student yearbook. Baseball is a Bat-and-ball Sport played between two teams of nine players each Basketball is a team Sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m He was encouraged to become a professional baseball player,[7] and he worked as a commercial illustrator while a student and he continued to accept magazine assignments throughout his life. Despite these opportunities in athletics and commercial art, Bellows desired success as a painter. He left Ohio State in 1904 just before he was to graduate and moved to New York City to study art. The City of New York [8]
Bellows was soon a student of Robert Henri at the New York School of Art, and became associated with Henri's "The Eight" and the Ashcan School, a group of artists who advocated painting contemporary American society in all its forms. Robert Henri ( June 25, 1865 - July 12, 1929) was an American painter notable for his teaching abilities and for leadership of the Parsons The New School for Design (abbreviated Parsons) is a Design school founded in 1896 (see below The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist Artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist Artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States [9] By 1906, Bellows was renting his own studio. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting
New York
Bellows first achieved notice in 1908, when he and other pupils of Henri organized an exhibition of mostly urban studies. Year 1908 ( MCMVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year While many critics considered these to be crudely painted, others found them welcomely audacious and a step beyond the work of his teacher. Bellows taught at the Art Students League of New York in 1909, although he was more interested in pursuing a career as a painter. The Art Students League of New York is an Art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting His fame grew as he contributed to other nationally recognized juried shows.
Oil on canvas, 40 1/4 x 42 1/8 in. (102. 2 x 107 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Bellows' urban New York scenes depicted the crudity and chaos of working-class people and neighborhoods, and also satirized the upper classes. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, also known as LACMA, is an Art museum in Los Angeles County California. From 1907 through 1915, he executed a series of paintings depicting New York City under snowfall. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year These paintings were the main testing ground in which Bellows developed his strong sense of light and visual texture. [10] These exhibited a stark contrast between the blue and white expanses of snow and the rough and grimy surfaces of city structures, and created an aesthetically ironic image of the equally rough and grimy men struggling to clear away the nuisance of the pure snow. However, Bellows' series of paintings portraying amateur boxing matches were arguably his signature contribution to art history. [11] These paintings are characterized by dark atmospheres, through which the bright, roughly lain brushstrokes of the human figures vividly strike with a strong sense of motion and direction.
Social and political themes
Growing prestige as a painter brought changes in his life and work. Though he continued his earlier themes, Bellows also began to receive portrait commissions, as well as social invitations, from New York's wealthy elite. Additionally, he followed Henri's lead and began to summer in Maine, painting seascapes on Monhegan and Matinicus islands. Monhegan is a plantation on an island of the same name in Lincoln County, Maine, United States, about off the coast
At the same time, the always socially conscious Bellows also associated with a group of radical artists and activists called "the Lyrical Left", who tended towards anarchism in their extreme advocacy of individual rights. Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i He taught at the first Modern School in New York City (as did his mentor, Henri), and served on the editorial board of the socialist journal, The Masses, to which he contributed many drawings and prints beginning in 1911. The Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were American Schools formed in the early 20th century around the ideas of educator and anarchist Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution The Masses was a graphically innovative magazine of Socialist politics published monthly in the U Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year However, he was often at odds with the other contributors because of his belief that artistic freedom should trump any ideological editorial policy. Bellows also notably dissented from this circle in his very public support of U. S. intervention in World War I. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All In 1918, he created a series of lithographs and paintings that graphically depicted the atrocities committed by Germany during its invasion of Belgium. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Lithography is a method for Printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Notable among these was The Germans Arrive, which was based on an actual account and gruesomely illustrated a German soldier restraining a Belgian teen whose hands had just been severed. However, his work was also highly critical of the domestic censorship and persecution of anti-war dissenters conducted by the U. S. government under the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I on June 15 1917 which made it a Crime for a person
Oil on canvas, 45 1/4 x 63 1/8 in. (115 x 160. 5 cm)
National Gallery of Art
Later life
As Bellows' later oils focused more on domestic life, with his wife and daughters as beloved subjects, the paintings also displayed an increasingly programmatic and theoretical approach to color and design, a marked departure from the fluid muscularity of the early work. This article is about the National Gallery of the United States for other National Galleries see National Gallery.
In addition to painting, Bellows made significant contributions to lithography, helping to expand the use of the medium as a fine art in the U. S. He installed a lithography press in his studio in 1916, and between 1921 and 1924 he collaborated with master printer Bolton Brown on more than a hundred images. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Bellows also illustrated numerous books in his later career, including several by H.G. Wells. Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 &ndash 13 August 1946 He was an outspoken socialist and a pacifist, his later works becoming increasingly political
Bellows taught at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1919. The Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's premier Fine art museums Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common In 1920, he began to spend nearly half of each year in Woodstock, New York, where he built a home for his family. Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. [12] He died on January 8, 1925 in New York City, of peritonitis, after failing to tend to a ruptured appendix. Peritonitis is defined as Inflammation of the Peritoneum (the Serous membrane which lines part of the abdominal cavity and some of the Viscera In Human anatomy, the appendix (or vermiform appendix; also cecal (or caecal appendix; also vermix) is a blind ended tube connected to the [13] He was survived by his wife, Emma, and two daughters, Anne and Jean.
Paintings and prints by George Bellows are in the collections of many major American art museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, and the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This article is about the National Gallery of the United States for other National Galleries see National Gallery. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney" harbors one of the most important collections of 20th century American art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street between Fifth The Columbus Museum of Art in Bellows' hometown also has a sizeable collection of both his portraits and New York street scenes. The Columbus Museum of Art, which opened on January 22, 1931, is an historic Art museum located at 480 East Broad Street in downtown Columbus
References
- ^ Encyclopedia Britanica: George Bellows
- ^ Smithsonian: By George, Happy Birthday
- ^ Ohio History Central: George Bellows
- ^ Art In The Picture: George Bellows
- ^ Encyclopedia of World Biography on George Wesley Bellows
- ^ Curator's View, Columbus Museum of Art Retrieved July 12, 2007.
- ^ Bellows biography, National Gallery of Art Retrieved July 12, 2007.
- ^ National Gallery of Art
- ^ National Gallery of Art
- ^ George Bellows: Love of Winter Retrieved July 12, 2007.
- ^ National Gallery of Art
- ^ Leaving the Country: George Bellows at Woodstock Retrieved July 12, 2007.
- ^ Bellows at Woodstock
See also
Selected works
 Pennsylvania Station Excavation (1907) |
 Club Night (1907) |
 Polo Crowd (1908) |
 Both Members of This Club (1909) |
 Title: Geraldine Lee No. There is also a Logan Medal of the Geological Association of Canada Ashcan School American realism was a turn of the century idea in art music and literature that showed through these different types of work reflections of the time period The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, is defined as a realist Artistic movement that came into prominence in the United States 2 Date: (1910) |
 Blue Snow the Battery (1910) |
 A Morning Snow Hudson River (1910) |
 Shore House (1911) |
 New York (1911) |
 Gull Rock and Whitehead (1911) |
 Evening Swell (1911) |
 An Island in the Sea (1911) |
 Mrs. Albert M. Miller (1912) |
 Fog Rainbow (1913) |
 Cliff Dwellers (1913) |
 Portrait of Florence Pierce (1914) |
 Portrait of Emma in Night Light (1914) |
 Lucie (1915) |
 Romance of Autumn (1916) |
 The Village on the Hill (1917) |
 Edith Cavell (1918) |
 Paradise Point (1919) |
 Dead Orchard (1919) |
 Trout Stream and Mountains (1920) |
 Old Canal, Eddyville (1920) |
 Emma at the Window (1920) |
 Elinor, Jean and Anna (1920) |
 Blasted Tree and Deserted House (1920) |
 Anne in White (1920) |
 A Wild Place (1920) |
 Katharine Rosen (1921) |
 Self-portrait, (1921), Lithograph |
 The Picnic (1924) |
 Summer Fantasy (1924) |
 Lady in a Green Dress (1924) |
 Dempsey and Firpo (1924) |
External links
- Artcyclopedia list of works by George Bellows online
- An American Pulse: The Lithographs of George Bellows, San Diego Museum of Art
- The Powerful Hand of George Bellows: Drawings from the Boston Public Library, exhibited at the Frick
- George Bellows Gallery at MuseumSyndicate