George Bellows 1882-1925

E. & A. Milch Gallery, New York
H.V. Allison & Co., New York
Charles Shipman Payson, 1961 (acquired from the above)
Bequest to the present owner (his wife)

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Realists 1900-1914, February-March 1937, no. 1
Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Museum of Art, Thirty-six Paintings by George Bellows, October-November 1940
New York, H.V. Allison & Co., Paintings by George Bellows, April-May 1949
New York, H.V. Allison & Co., George Bellows, May 1957, no. 15
New York, H.V. Allison & Co., George Bellows, May 1961, no. 5
New York, Salander O'Reilly Galleries, Barnard Collects: The Educated Eye, September-October 1989

The artist's record book A, p. 203

George Bellows first visited Monhegan Island in Maine at the invitation of his former teacher and good friend, Robert Henri, who suggested that Bellows join him and another young artist, Randall Davey, on a three-week painting excursion in the summer of 1911.  Monhegan Island became a popular artist’s colony during the summer months around the turn-of-the-century, but was inhabited year round by only a small group of lobster fishermen and their families.  Though less than three miles long and only one-half mile wide, the island contained some of the most spectacular scenery to be found anywhere along the Maine coast.  The village of Monhegan was built at the mouth of a natural cove on the island’s sheltered western side, but along its eastern shore rose massive rocky headlands, which were constantly battered by the rough seas of the open Atlantic.  Virgin forests and windswept grassy uplands covered the island’s interior.  Powerfully affected by Monhegan’s wild beauty, Bellows poured out his impressions in letters to his wife Emma, writing to her shortly after his arrival, “This is the most wonderful country ever modeled by the hand of the master architect” (August 9, 1911, Bellows Papers [Box 1, Folder 3], Amherst College Library).

Bellows produced a number of his most spirited compositions often featuring the crashing waves and craggy shorelines in moody tones of grey and blue during these summer sojourns in Monhegan.  Beginning in 1913, however, Bellows also began to paint the harbor on the quiet side of the island where the fishermen would bring their boats to shore.  These paintings, if less energetic in their subject matter, were every bit as lively and vital in their painterly qualities.  Bellows applied his vigorous brushwork in a new, bolder palette.  The artist wrote of the summer of 1913, “I painted a great many pictures and arrived at a pure kind of color which I never hit before.  And which seems to me cleaner and purer than most of the contemporary effort in that direction” (Michael Quick, “Technique and Theory: The Evolution of George Bellows’s Painting Style,” George Bellows, Fort Worth, Texas, 1992, p. 43). He also wrote to Robert Henri, “I have been working with the colors and not much hue [more neutral color] and find a lot of new discoveries for me in the process” (George Bellows, p. 44).  This newfound inspiration may have led to increased productivity as Bellows painted over one hundred small appealing panels during his four month stay on the island.