Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Visit
  • Exhibitions & Events
  • Art & Design
  • Search

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Introduction

George Bellows, The Eight, and the American Scene

July 7 - September 2, 1995

George Bellows arrived in New York in the early years of the twentieth century and made his first paintings in 1904 while a student of Robert Henri. The major themes of his career emerged almost immediately: urban views, vigorous landscapes, vivid portraits, and sporting subjects that struck a chord with the public despite their unvarnished interpretation of American life.

Although Bellows was not a member of the group known as "the Eight" -- a loose association of painters who first exhibited together at the Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1908 -- his work paralleled in subject and style. With the members of "the Eight" -- Henri, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and William Glackens -- Bellows participated in a movement to confront academic painting with a progressive, revitalized American Art. A number of these painters, including Bellows, had worked as newspaper artists and shared a graphic figural style as well as an interest in describing contemporary life. Others, such as Arthur B. Davies, preferred to paint scenes from the imagination, a challenge which Bellows confronted in literary subjects and in his images of the first World War.

Bellows's versatility also extended to lithography. He was an outstanding draftsman whose prints equal his achievements as a painter. His portrayal of the American scene in the first decades of the century combined a directness of vision and approach with a perceptible energy that continues to resonate in his work.

Selected Objects

Z0038353.jpg

Arthur Bowen Davies, designer

Psyche, 1919
RISDM 1992-001-16.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Pool Player, 1921
Z0030997.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Nude Boy: Hand over Head, study for Riverfront No. 1, 1915
RISDM 25-042.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, printmaker

Allan Donn Puts to Sea, 1923
No Image Available

John Sloan, designer

Fun, One Cent, 1905
RISDM 33-242.jpg

George Benjamin Luks

Sassafras, 1927
RISDM 25-139.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Murder of Edith Cavell, 1918
RISDM 25-140.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Splinter Beach, 1916
RISDM 79-154.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Artists Judging Works of Art, early 1900s
Z0030999.jpg

Arthur Bowen Davies

Quarries at Seravezza, 1927
No Image Available

George Benjamin Luks

Herons and Cranes, mid 1800s-mid 1900s
No Image Available

George Benjamin Luks

Parakeets, mid 1800s-mid 1900s
Z0054458.jpg

Arthur Bowen Davies

Lucca, 1927
Z0054459.jpg

Arthur Bowen Davies

Certosa - Firenze, Late 1800s-mid 1900s
Z0018576.jpg

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

The Village, 1918-24
Z0018276.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Group of Workmen, late 1800s - early 1900s
Z0030998.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Portrait of Jean, ca. 1919
Z0000371.jpg

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Watching the Sailboats, ca. 1895-1897
Z0052728.jpg

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Promenade, ca. 1898-1901
RISDM 84-198-304.jpg

John Sloan, designer

Night Windows, 1910
No Image Available

George Benjamin Luks

Figures, mid 1800s-mid 1900s
RISDM 1993-096-2.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Preliminaries (Preliminaries to the Big Bout), 1916
No Image Available

Arthur Bowen Davies, designer

Growth of Spring, 1919
RISDM 55-053a.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Stag at Sharkey's, 1917
Z0000359.jpg

George Benjamin Luks

St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1923-1924
Z0018713.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Rain on the River, 1908
Z0036649.jpg

Ernest Lawson

Winter Landscape, ca. 1913-1914
RISDM 15-227.jpg

George Wesley Bellows

Portrait of Walter Littlefield, 1915
Z0000321.jpg

Howard McLean

Evening Promenade, 1912
Z0051858.jpg

Robert Henri

Mary with a Red Ribbon, 1926
RISDM 1992-001-13.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

Indoor Athlete No. 1, 1921
Z0035822.jpg

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

On the Beach, ca. 1914-1918
RISDM 1993-096-1.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

The Tournament (Tennis at Newport), ca. 1921
No Image Available

John Sloan, designer

14th Street, The Wigwam, 1928
Z0040880.jpg

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Fiesta, Venice, ca. 1898
RISDM 1992-001-14.jpg

George Wesley Bellows, designer

In the Park, 1916
No Image Available

John Sloan, designer

Hell Hole, 1917
No Image Available

John Sloan, designer

McSorley's Back Room, 1916
Z0044684.jpg

Arthur Bowen Davies

Clothed in Dominion, ca. 1912
Z0000537.jpg

Robert Henri

Through the Edge of the Forest, mid 1800s-early 1900s
No Image Available

John Sloan, designer

Barber Shop, 1915
No Image Available

Arthur Bowen Davies

San Miniato, 1926

More objects +

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use