Sold at Auction: George Wesley Bellows

(b Columbus, Ohio 1882; d 1962) Bellows attended Ohio State University before moving to New York to study under Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. A follower of the Ashcan school, he is labeled an urban realist. He selected his subject matter primarily from New York’s lower classes, painting tenement children, street brawls, ghettos and illegal prizefights. His talent allowed him to also paint high society though, and he produced many scenes of beautiful people, dressed in their finest, playing tennis, watching polo, etc. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1913, the same year his work was part of the avant-garde Armory show. Later in his career, he took up lithography and became a prolific print-maker.