Lot 17
  • 17

George Wesley Bellows

Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • George Wesley Bellows
  • The White Woman
  • signed Geo Bellows (lower right), titled THE WHITE WOMAN. (lower center) and inscribed AND THERE WAS HEDDA HAGEN. (lower center margin)
  • conté crayon on paper
  • image: 18 3/4 by 17 inches (47.6 by 43.2 cm)
  • sheet: 22 3/4 by 20 5/8 inches (57.8 by 52.4 cm)
  • Executed circa 1922.

Provenance

Hammer Galleries, New York, 1968
Private collection, Columbus, Ohio (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner, 2008 

Exhibited

New York, Hammer Galleries, Recent Acquisitions: Summer Exhibition, June-September 1967, no. 31, illustrated n.p.

Literature

Artist's Record Book B, p. 267
Donn Bryne, The Wind Bloweth, New York, 1922, illustrated n.p. 

Condition

The sheet is hinged to the support at two places on front of top edge. The sheet appears to be slightly toned and there is mat burn. There are artist's pinholes and residue from a former mounting in the margins.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

George Bellows began his career as a graphic illustrator, executing images for such prominent publications as Vanity Fair, Collier's and Harper's, and earning praise for drawings that were "bold, simple, vivid, and lively to capture the reader's interest" (Linda Ayres, "Bellows: The Boxing Drawings," Bellows: The Boxing Pictures, Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 50). Though these early commissions provided the young artist with a consistent source of income that he no longer needed as he achieved wide recognition and success as a painter by 1915, Bellows continued to contribute illustrations to magazine, journals and popular novels for the rest of his brief but celebrated career. 

The White Woman is one of 15 illustrations Bellows rendered for Donn Bryne's 1922 novel, The Wind Bloweth. It depicts the moment when the novel's young protagonist meets a beautiful blonde woman named Hedda Hagen during the course of his travels at sea. Executed in the last period of Bellow's life, it exemplifies the more stylized and elegant aesthetic he cultivated in the 1920s after which he and his family began to spend the summer and autumn months of the year in Woodstock, New York.