Painting

By: George Bellows

Date: 1924

Source: Bellows, George. Dempsey and Firpo, 1924. Available online at http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/s206.1.jpg (accessed July 7, 2002).

About the Author: George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925) was born in Columbus, Ohio, and studied at Ohio State University. He enjoyed a career as a semiprofessional baseball player before moving to New York in 1904 to study art. Bellows achieved early fame with his bold paintings of prize-fighters and scenes of everyday urban life. His work embodied a new and controversial form of social realism, later known as the Ashcan School of painting.

Introduction

Bellows studied painting with Philadelphia-born artist Robert Henri, leader of an artistic movement that became known as the Ashcan School. The...