• George Bellows & the Early 20th Century at The Metropolitan Museum

    Date posted: January 9, 2013 Author: jolanta
    It is realism, Ashcan realism, not Impressionism, that characterizes the paintings of the American George Bellows, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1882, and died in New York in 1925.  Even at his death at the early age of 42, he was recognized as one of America’s greatest artists.  Though known for his depiction of boxing matches and the desperate scenes of New York City tenement life, visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will view 120 works until February 18, 2013 that will also include a wide range of work such as cityscapes, portraits, war scenes, seascapes, illustrations and lithographs depicting  the social, political, and cultural issues of the artist’s day-often with a satirical edge.

     

     

    George Bellows, Blue Snow, The Battery, 1910. Oil on canvas, 34 x 44 in. (86.4 x 111.8 cm). Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum Purchase, Howald Fund

     

    George Bellows & the Early 20th Century at The Metropolitan Museum

    By Harriet Zinnes

    It is realism, Ashcan realism, not Impressionism, that characterizes the paintings of the American George Bellows, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1882, and died in New York in 1925.  Even at his death at the early age of 42, he was recognized as one of America’s greatest artists.  Though known for his depiction of boxing matches and the desperate scenes of New York City tenement life, visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will view 120 works until February 18, 2013 that will also include a wide range of work such as cityscapes, portraits, war scenes, seascapes, illustrations and lithographs depicting  the social, political, and cultural issues of the artist’s day-often with a satirical edge.

     

    George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey’s, 1909. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x48 1/4 in. (92 x 122.6 cm), Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection


    Bellows’s interests were wide.  Though he could paint the horrors of alleged atrocities against civilians by the German Army at the beginning of World War I, he could turn away from a violent world to his lifelong artistic muse, his wife Emma. A passion which he expressed in words to his wife early in marriage: “Can I tell you that your heart is in me and your portrait is in all my work.  What can a  man say to a woman who absorbs his whole life?”

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