George Wesley Bellows Art
American, 1882-1925
George Bellows, an American artist, was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1882, the only child of a successful building contractor from Sag Harbor, New York. He entered Ohio State University in 1901, where he played baseball and basketball and made drawings for college publications. He dropped out of college in 1904, went to New York, and studied under Robert Henri (American, 1865 – 1929) at the New York School of Art, where Edward Hopper (American, 1882 – 1967), Rockwell Kent (American, 1882 – 1971), and Guy Pène du Bois (American, 1884 – 1958) were his classmates. A superb technician who worked in a confident, painterly style, Bellows soon established himself as the most important realist of his generation. He created memorable images of club fights, street urchins swimming in the East River, and the Pennsylvania Station excavation site and garnered praise from both progressive and conservative critics.
In 1910 Bellows began teaching at the Art Students League and married Emma Story, by whom he had two daughters. After 1910 Bellows gradually abandoned the stark urban realism and dark palette characteristic of his early work and gravitated toward painting landscapes, seascapes, and portraits.
Bellows helped organize the Armory Show in 1913, in which five of his paintings and a number of drawings were included. That year he was elected a full member of the National Academy of Design. He had leftist political views and contributed illustrations to the Socialist publication The Masses from 1912 to 1917. Bellows began to make lithographs in 1916 and his exceptional talent engendered a revival of interest in the medium. He worked in Maine, in Carmel, California, and in Middletown, Rhode Island, and was a founding member of the Society of Independent Artists and a charter member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors. In 1919 he taught at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Bellows, who never went to Europe, is regarded as a quintessential American artist whose vigorous style enabled him to explore a wide range of subjects from scenes of modern urban life to portraits of his daughters, to turbulent Maine seascapes. As an early biographer noted, Bellows “caught the brute force of the prizefighter, the ruggedness of the country pasture, the essence of childhood and recorded them appropriately not only for his own generation but for all time.”[1]
[1] [Frederick A. Sweet], George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints (Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 1946).
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Artist: George Wesley Bellows
red ballboy or Studies for "Tennis Tournament"
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Red Ballboy or Studies for "Tennis Tournament"
Crayon on paper, c. 1920
Unsigned
Condition: three vertical folds created by the artist to transport the drawing from the tennis match ...
Category
1910s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Graphite
"Business-Men's Class, Y.M.C.A." George Bellows, Ashcan School Print
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in New York, NY
George Bellows
Business-Men's Class, Y.M.C.A, 1916
Signed, numbered "No. 41" and titled lower margin
Lithograph on wove paper
11 1/2 x 17 1/8 inches
Edition of 64
Provenance:
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Private Collection, Ohio
Literature:
Mason, 20.
After his arrival from Columbus, Ohio in 1904, Bellows lived at the West Side YMCA. It was there that he met Eugene Speicher, another aspiring young artist who was to become his lifelong friend. Always interested in the anatomy of the human body, Bellows often satirized the various types who, while leading a sedentary life, feel compelled to devote a portion of their daily routine to physical self-improvement.
Throughout his brief but illustrious career, George Wesley Bellows created striking scenes that documented ordinary American life in all its beauty and banality. Considered an American Realist, the artist eschewed embellishment, finding inspiration in the gritty boroughs of New York City, the rocky coastline of Maine, and, later, in his friends and family. Bellows garnered early recognition for his arresting portrayals of illegal prizefighting, dramatic works executed in dark tonal palettes that underscore the brutality of the violent sport.
Bellows’ elderly Methodist parents hoped their son might pursue the ministry, a calling the extroverted athlete never received. The Columbus native competed on the baseball team at Ohio State University and also served as an illustrator for the college yearbook. In the fall of 1904—just months shy of his expected graduation—Bellows defied his father’s wishes and boarded a train to New York City in hopes of becoming a magazine illustrator like his idols Howard Chandler Christy and Charles Dana Gibson. Before leaving, he reportedly turned down an offer to play professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds...
Category
1910s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
The Hold Up, First State
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed in pencil by the artist lower right
Titled "Hold Up" by the artist in pencil.
Signed by the printer Bolton Brown lower left.
Edition: 42 in this state
Note: In The Hold Up, se...
Category
1920s American Realist George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
Sketch of Anne
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Sketch of Anne
Lithograph, 1923-1924
Signed and titled by the artist, signed by his printer Bolton Brown
Edition: 42
Printed by Bolton Brown (see photo of his signature in pencil)
Pr...
Category
1920s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
The Irish Fair
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Irish Fair
Lithograph, 1923
Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist (see photo)
Titled "Irish Fair" by the artist in pencil
Edition: 84
Housed in an archival frame with acid free matting (see photo)
Provenance:
Estate of the artist, Bellows Family Trust
H.V. Allison & Company (label)
Private Collection, Columbus
References And Exhibitions:
Reference: Mason 153
Note: An illustration commissioned by The Century Company for Don Byrne's novel The Wind Bloweth
Image: 18 7/8 x 21 3/8"
Frame: 29 1/2 x 30 1/2"
“Eleven on a hot July morning, and the little town...
Category
1920s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
The Mouth of Honey
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Mouth of Honey
Lithographic crayon and mixed media on paper mounted to support paper
Initialed by the artist "GB" bottom center on image. (see photo)
Titled in pencil in bottom m...
Category
1920s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Crayon
The Black Hat (Emma in a Black Hat)
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in New York, NY
George Bellows (1882-1925), The Black Hat (Emma in a Black Hat), lithograph, 1921. Reference: Morse 113. From the edition of 55. Signed in pencil by the arti...
Category
1920s American Realist George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
Tennis (Tennis Tournament)
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in New York, NY
George Bellows (1882-1925), Tennis (Tennis Tournament), lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right, also signed and annotated by the printer Bolton Brown, imp lower left, and num...
Category
1920s American Realist George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
THE LIFE CLASS - SECOND STONE (THE MODEL, LIFE CLASS).
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Portland, ME
Bellows, George. THE LIFE CLASS - SECOND STONE (THE MODEL, LIFE
CLASS). Mason 43, Bellows 193. Lithograph, 1917. Edition of 49,
signed by Bellows. Inscribed "No.20," titled and sign...
Category
Early 20th Century George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
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Previously Available Items
Standing Female Nude
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude
Graphite on wove paper, c. 1915
Signed by the artist's daughter, Jean Bellows Booth (JBB) (see photo)
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
H. V. Allison Galleries (#94 on partial label), agent for Bellows Trust
Ronald Sloter, Columbus, OH, noted collector
Columbus College of Art and Design
Biography
George Wesley Bellows grew up in Columbus, Ohio, the son of a devout and solidly Midwestern building contractor, and a mother who hoped that her son would become a Methodist Bishop. He always felt deeply ambivalent about his father, noting at the time of his death that, "He was a wonderfully fine man, yet being fifty-five when I appeared, his point of view, his character even, belonged to so remote a past that I look upon many of his ideas to this day with amazement and sorrow."
Teased as a sissy by his classmates, George Bellows quickly learned to defend himself with his fists, and compensated for his gangling awkwardness by becoming an outstanding athlete, particularly in baseball. His love of drawing was kindled early since he was forbidden to play outside on Sundays but allowed to draw while his mother read aloud from the Bible.
At Ohio State University, George Bellows proved a spirited extrovert, excelling in baseball as well as in the new sport of basketball, singing in theatricals, and producing drawings of Gibson-like girls for the university's magazine. Bellows's athletic prowess almost diverted him from a career in art, but in 1904 he decided to turn down a professional baseball contact and move to New York City to study painting.
The sprawling, teaming city of New York was a revelation to him after the neat lawns and tidy homes of Columbus. There he quickly fell under the spell of the charismatic teacher Robert Henri, who introduced him to Shaw, Ibsen and socialism, and inspired him to shift from drawing Gibson Girls to painting the life of the streets. Bellows was still a relative newcomer to New York when Henri and his followers staged their famous exhibition of "The Eight" at the Macbeth Gallery, and consequently he was not included. But in spirit his work belongs with that display - perhaps someday Henri’s group will be rechristened "The Nine" to pay tribute to the fact that George Bellows was the painter whose work best expresses the goals of the group.
In 1906 Bellows painted his first masterpiece, "The Cross-Eyed Boy." He followed with several other equally memorable likenesses of street urchins, and then expanded his vision with a series of masterful urban scenes that record such subjects as boys swimming...
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Emma and Marjorie on a Sofa
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Emma and Marjorie on a Sofa
Lithograph printed on chine paper, 1921
Signed by the artist lower right (see photo)
Signed by the printer Bolton Brown lower left (see photo)
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Hungry Dogs, Second State
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Hungry Dogs, Second State
Lithograph, 1916
Considered to be the artist's first lithograph
Signed, titled and numbered in pencil by the artist (see photo)
Titled "Hungry Dogs" by the artist in pencil (see photo)
Edition: at least 41 impressions, this "No. 14"
Reference: Masson 1B ii/II
Condition: Printer's ink in margins, otherwise very good condition.
Note: The artist's first lithograph. The "Ash Can School" is derived from this image and its' depiction of an ash can in the lower left of the composition. A very important American 20th Century print. This image gave rise to the naming of the most important American style of painting in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Provenance: Estate of the artist
H. V. Allison & Co., New York (Bellows estate dealer)
Private Collection, Columbus, Ohio (Bellows city of birth)
From 2001 to 2018, Thomas French Fine Art was the exclusive agent for the Bellows Family Trust. Thomas French Fine Art and The Bellows Trust hold a large inventory of original lithographs and drawings created by George Wesley Bellows that were left in the artist’s studio at the time of his unexpected early death. All of George Bellows’ original lithographs were printed by the artist or under his direct supervision. There are no posthumous impressions of any of George Bellows’ lithographs...
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1910s American Realist George Wesley Bellows Art
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BETWEEN ROUNDS
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Portland, ME
Bellows, George (American 1882-1925). BETWEEN ROUNDS NO.1 (LARGE). Mason 25, Bellows 52. Lithograph, 1916.
Edition of 58, this signed by Jean Bellows Beeth, the artist's daughter, a...
Category
1910s George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
ARTIST'S EVENING (AT PETIPAS)
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Portland, ME
Bellows, George. ARTIST'S EVENING (AT PETIPAS). M.19. Lithograph, 1916. Edition of 65. A lifetime impression, signed by the artist in pencil and numbered "57." Printed on thin Japane...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
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Between Rounds, Small, Second Stone
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and titled by the artist
Signed lower left by the printer, Bolton Brown
Edition 42
Printed on fine chine paper, mounted to paper board, most probably by the artist’s first print dealer, Frederick Keppel & Company, in the mid 1920’s. This is consistent with other similar mounted examples in the estate of the artist. The Keppel firm was active from 1868 to 1941, when Harry V. Allison started his own gallery, H. V. Allison Gallery...
Category
1920s Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
Preliminaries (to the Big Bout).
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Storrs, CT
Mason 24. 15 7/8 x 19 5/8 (sheet 23 x 27 1/4). Edition 67, #2. A rich impression printed on white wove paper paper, with full margins. Provenance: ACA Galleries, private New York collection. This is a fine lifetime impression. Signed, numbered and titled in pencil by the artist.
In this early impression, there are four spotlights in the top of the image. The three in the right were eliminated in subsequent impressions.
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Bellows...
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20th Century Ashcan School George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
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Counted Out, 1st Stone (M. 94)
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in New York, NY
Medium: Lithograph on paper
Signed and titled in pencil from the edition of 11
Category
1920s American Realist George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
Sixteen East Gay Street
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed by the artist and his printer Bolton Brown
Edition: 72
Provenance:
H.V. Allison & Co., Inc., New York (label)
References And Exhibitions:
This nostalgic scene o...
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Legs of the Sea
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed by the artist and his printer Bolton Brown
Edition: 53
Provenance:
H.V. Allison & Co., Inc., New York (label)
References:
Lauris Ma...
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1920s George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
Lithograph
Top I' the World
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed by the artist lower right "G.B."
Preliminary drawing for the frontispiece illustration of The Wind Bloweth by Donn Byrne
Exhibited:
Gallery of Modern Art, 1966
A C...
Category
1920s George Wesley Bellows Art
Materials
India Ink, Oil Crayon
The Return to Life
By George Wesley Bellows
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed lower right by the artist's daughter Jean Bellows Booth (J.B.B.)
Preliminary drawing for the lithograph "The Return to Life" from the series "Men Like Gods."
Sister drawing in the Wiggin Collection, Boston Public Library.
Provenance:
Bellows Trust # ---
H.V. Allison & Co, New York, NY
R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago, IL
Thomas French Fine Art
Collection Arthur A. Anderson
Exhibition:
Greenville County Art Museum, George Bellows: Drawings (Greenville, SC: 1991).
R.H. Love Galleries, George Bellows: Drawings (Chicago, IL, 1992). (label)
On loan to the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paultz, NY, 2006-2008
Sketch of man...
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1920s George Wesley Bellows Art
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Questions About George Wesley Bellows Art
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Cliff Dwellers by George Bellows is a painting created in 1913 that’s meant to depict the explosive population growth that New York City was experiencing at the time. Specifically, the painting is of a hot summer’s day in New York City’s Lower East Side. On 1stDibs, find a variety of original artwork from top artists.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022George Bellows created paintings that focussed on realism. His oil paintings mixed urban studies with social and political themes, mainly centered around New York City. On 1stDibs, you can shop a selection of George Bellow’s pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers from the comfort of your home.