While these artists never formed an official school, their work commonly presented a distinctive vision of the daily realities of urban life. Working primarily in New York City, George Bellows is often associated with the group of American urban realist painters known as the Ashcan school. This essay will examine how Bellows’s original 1914 portrait as well as his subsequent act of cropping were both uniquely informed by the artist’s engagement with a new urban visuality emerging in New York City during the first decades of the twentieth century. 1 was as interesting for lighting and pattern of mass and colour as it was for Geraldine Lee.” 2 This portrait is further complicated by the evidence that Bellows cut down the work years after its completion-from a size of 28 x 30” to its current dimensions of 22 x 18” inches. 1 In a review of a 1916 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, one critic wrote, “ Geraldine Lee No.
Using portraiture as a means to experiment with composition and color, Bellows infused what was traditionally a more conservative artistic genre with the same creative energy that marked his depictions of urban life and mass entertainment. 1, painted during one of his summer trips to Monhegan Island, Maine, Bellows depicted the daughter of a local fisherman in an inventive yet slightly discomforting composition marked by strong tonal contrasts, dramatic lighting, and a limited color palette. In his 1914 work Portrait of Geraldine Lee, No. 1, 1914Ĭoordinator of Education and Public Programs, Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumĪlthough best known for his paintings and lithographs of the boxing ring and life on New York’s Lower East Side, as well as his interest in social realism and art theory, George Bellows painted some one hundred and forty portraits during his short career. Spotlight Essay: George Wesley Bellows, Portrait of Geraldine Lee, No.
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