| George Bellows (1882-1925) | ||
| CJackson |  Portrait from Metropolitan
Lives at NMAA.When he was a young boy, Bellows' mother dressed him in white knickerbocker suits (until age 8). "I was faced by a continual need of self-defense." He was a favorite of teachers who asked him to decorate blackboards at Thanksgiving and Christmas. He started playing baseball at age 10. He also joined the YMCA to play the newly invented game of basketball. (He played semipro basketball later.) As a high school senior he turned down an offer from the Indianapolis team of the Western League. Instead, he went to Ohio State University where, at the end of his freshman year, the coach placed Bellows as shortstop on his semipro team. He turned down an offer to play shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds in favor of becoming an artist. Bellows moved to New York. His interest in sports took him to Sharkey's club, which was near Henri's art school. His enthusiasm for art and life made him a natural ally for Henri. "My life begins at this point." In 1908 he was named an associate of the National Academy of Design. (At 26, he was the youngest man ever elected.) He became an instructor at the New York School of Art directed by Chase. His landscapes surpassed the best works of the Hudson River School and his portraits were among the finest done by an American in this century. His best-known work was Stag at Sharkey's. "I don't know anything about boxing, I am just painting two men trying to kill each other." Guests at his studio included Eugene O'Neill. He died of a ruptured appendix in 1925 (age 42).
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Bellows
liked to paint sporting events: Boxing Bellows