Images(2)

The Studio

Artist George Wesley Bellows (1882 - 1925)

Date1919

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions48 × 38 in. (121.9 × 96.5 cm)
Framed: 57 3/8 × 47 3/8 × 3 3/8 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.81

Signedl.r.: Geo. Bellows

Accession number 2010.81

On View

Not on view

Collections

Art on Loan

ProvenanceEstate of the Artist, 1925; to Emma Story Bellows [1884-1959] (Artist's wife), New York, NY, 1925; to Estate of Emma Story Bellows, 1959; (H.V. Allison & Co., New York, NY); purchased by C. Ruxton Love, Jr. [1903-1971], Greenwich, CT, 1960; to Estate of C. Ruxton Love, Jr., 1971; (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY); Frank Hathaway, Los Angeles Athletic Club, Los Angeles, CA; Gerald P. Peters, Santa Fe, NM; Daniel Fraad [1912-1987] and Rita Rich Fraad [1915-2004], Scarsdale, NY, 1985; to (Sotheby's, New York, NY), December 1, 2004, lot 31; purchased by a private foundation for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2004
Label TextThe Studio is a charming portrait of an artist and his family at Christmas. Bellows paints his wife, Emma, in the foreground while the couple’s two daughters, Jean and Anne, play under the decorated tree. In the background, Emma’s mother makes a telephone call (a modern convenience) with the help of a servant. Up on the mezzanine, lithographer Bolton Brown is hard at work on Bellows’s printing press.

In The Studio, Bellows takes a modern approach to the time-honored theme of domestic life. Here, he experimented with compositions and color based on techniques used by modern artists Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso. The outline of his wife on the canvas at left, for example, features asymmetrical divisions suggesting a modern design.

Markingsverso, on backing board: [Amon Carter Museum exhibition label for American Impressionism and Realism]
verso, on backing board: [Gerald P. Peters label]