George Bellows / A Shot Through the Art

Men of the Docks, 1912
George Bellows

A Shot Through the Art

Oct 09, 2007 at 11:17 AM EDT
BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE BELLOWS

The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College is closed to tourists on Mondays, so Karol Lawson, the museum's director, was surprised last week to have her paperwork interrupted by visitors. And not just any visitors—the college president, John Klein, flanked by two staffers. When they walked into Lawson's office and closed the door, she thought she was going to be fired. In fact, she—and the school—were about to lose something far more valuable. In order to boost its shriveling endowment, Randolph was going to auction some paintings, including the school's pride and joy: George Bellows's 1912 "Men of the Docks." A moving van had already pulled up outside. A small army of campus police, security guards, movers and—most ominously—a lawyer marched into the building and began removing million-dollar paintings and spiriting them away in cardboard and bubble wrap. They took four pieces. It wasn't until later that she realized someone had cut off her phone and e-mail during the purge. "It felt," says Lawson, who resigned, "like a mugging."

From the city to the sea / The life and art of George Bellows

Stag at Sharkey's, 1909. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 48 1/4 in. (92.1 x 122.6 cm). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

From the city to the sea 

The life and art 

of George Bellows

BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE BELLOWS

A guide to the Ashcan School artist whose subjects ranged from New York’s working classes to the Maine coast, via the boxing ring and the Catskill Mountains. Illustrated with works offered in American Art  on 22 May 2018 in New York

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• George Bellows could have been a contender — as a baseball player

George Bellows (1882-1925) was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. Interested in sports at a young age, he played basketball and baseball throughout high school. By his senior year, his skill as a shortstop had attracted the attention of professional teams.

George Wesley Bellows / Original Lithographs & Drawings

George Bellows

 

BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE BELLOWS

Original Lithographs & Drawings

Thomas French Fine Art has represented the Bellows Family Trust since 2001. The Bellows Family Trust holds original lithographs and drawings created by George Wesley Bellows and left in the artist’s studio at the time of his unexpected early death. George BellowsAll 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.

George Bellows was introduced to fine art lithography by Albert Sterner in 1916. George Bellows was a quick study and soon became the leading printmaker of the Ashcan School. As he became more proficient in lithography, George Bellows employed the services of master lithographic printers, George C. Miller and later, Bolton Brown. George Bellows' daughter Jean recalls that Bellows would work until dawn with his printers to achieve the desired pictorial effects, often destroying lithographs that did not meet his exacting standards.

Many drawings and lithographs were unsigned at the time of George Bellows death at age 43. At first the artist's widow, Emma S. Bellows, signed the remaining lifetime impressions of his works with the artist's name followed by her initials (ESB). After Emma Bellows' death, her daughter Jean Bellows Booth continued to sign these lifetime impressions of the original lithographs and drawings with the artist’s name followed by her initials (JBB)."

In 2001, the most famous dealer of George Wesley Bellows' works, H.V. Allison & Co., stopped handling the estate. At their suggestion, the Bellows Family Trust appointed Thomas French Fine Art to manage the remaining original lithographs and drawings.

GEORGES BELLOWS