20th century Ashcan Painter, Printmaker
American, (August 12, 1882–January 8, 1925)
As World War I raged in Europe, many Americans preferred to avoid the conflict; for three years the United States maintained its neutrality, finally intervening in April 1917. This change in heart was due, in part, to graphically detailed reports of the war in the popular press that both horrified and outraged the American populace. George Bellows joined with most Americans by 1917 in supporting the war and enlisted (though did not serve) and used his art in a series of paintings and lithographs to support his political views and personal convictions.
The Bryce Report was written by Viscount James Bryce, former ambassador from Great Britain to the United States, and published (in abridged form) in the New York Times. It was arguably the strongest account that helped to sway public opinion in support of war. The report was based on 1,200 eyewitness accounts of the 1914 atrocities committed by Germans in Belgium, the so-called “crossroads of Europe” with the geographic misfortune of lying between France and Germany.
George Bellows based eight of the prints shown here directly upon the Bryce Report. These monumental compositions are the most shocking visual accounts of war since Goya's Disasters of War one hundred years earlier. The prints were conceived first and served as models for a subsequent series of paintings. While the propagandistic value of the War series to the specific conflicts of World War I was quickly recognized, Bellows himself viewed his powerful and disturbing images in the more universal terms of mankind's inhumanity and brutality.
"Prepare, America!" 2000.100
A Stag at Sharkey's 1940.65
Anne 1921 2000.153
Anne 1923 1927.6
Anne 1923 2000.154
Artists' Evening 1997.13
Auntie Mason and Her Husband 2000.187
Base Hospital, Second Stone 2000.111
Bathing Beach 1998.6
Bathing Beach 2000.128
Benediction in Georgia 1997.8
Benediction in Georgia 2000.92
Billy Sunday 1997.34
Business-Men's Bath 1997.36
Business-Men's Class 1986.63
Counted Out, First Stone 1997.27
Crucifixion of Christ 1998.7
Crucifixion of Christ 2000.158
Dance in a Madhouse 1997.20
Dance in a Madhouse 2000.110
Dempsey and Firpo 1986.62
Dempsey Through the Ropes 1997.41
Electrocution 1998.3
Electrocution 2000.107
Elsie 2000.138
Elsie Reading to Emma, First Stone 2000.136
Elsie, Figure 1998.90
Emma and Marjorie on a Sofa 2000.134
Family 2000.90
Fantasy 2000.89
Farewell to Utopia 2000.174
Final Instructions 2000.175
Four Friends 2000.132
Gene Speicher Drawing on a Stone 2000.137
Girl Fixing Her Hair 1997.42
Gott Strafe England 2000.113
Head of Anne 2000.140
Head of Gregory 2000.189
Hungry Dogs, Second Stone 1997.7
Hungry Dogs, Second Stone 2000.84
In an Elevator 2000.98
In the Park, Dark 1997.16
In the Park, Dark 2000.97
Initiation in the Frat 1998.88
Introducing John L. Sullivan 1997.15
Introductions 1997.29
Irish Grandmother 2000.165
Jean 1921, First Stone 2000.141
Jean 1923 1952.60
Jean in a Black Hat 1997.43
Lady with a Fan 2000.139
Legs of the Sea 2000.247
Legs of the Sea 2000.127
Lobster Cove, Monhegan, Maine 1930.52
Lychnis and Her Sons 2000.172
Male Torso 2000.85
Man in a Silk Hat 2000.144
Man on His Back, Nude 1996.22
Married Couple 2000.156
Massacre at Dinant 1997.22
Matinicus 2000.93
Miss Tate 2000.147
Morning, Nude on Bed, First Stone 2000.124
Morning, Nude Sketch 2000.123
Mother and Children 1997.11
Mother and Children 2000.94
Murder of Edith Cavell 1993.17
Murder of Edith Cavell 1997.21
Murder of Edith Cavell 2000.112
New Society Dinner-Card 2000.161
Nude Study, Classic on a Couch 2000.178
Nude Study, Woman Lying on a Pillow 2000.184
Nude Study, Woman Lying Prone 1998.10
Nude Study, Woman Lying Prone 2000.181
Nude Study, Woman Stretched on Bed 2000.183
Nude Woman Seated 2000.88
Nude Woman Seated with Folded Hands 2000.104
Nude Woman Standing, Side View 2000.87
Old Irish Woman 2000.166
Portrait of John Carroll 2000.151
Portrait of Julian Bowles 2000.152
Portrait of Mrs. Herb Roth 2000.188
Portrait, Louis Bouché 2000.146
Prayer Meeting, First Stone 1997.9
Prayer Meeting, Second Stone 1996.23
Prayer Meeting, Second Stone 1997.10
Preliminaries 1997.14
Punchinello in the House of Death 2000.163
Reducing, Large, First Stone 2000.96
Reducing, Second Stone 1972.7
Reducing, Small, Third Stone 2000.125
River-Front 1998.86
Self-portrait 2005.96
Sixteen East Gay Street 1998.91
Sketch of Anne 1998.108
Sketch of Frank Byrne 2000.190
Sniped 2000.119
Solitude 2000.1
Solitude 2000.103
Speicher Seated in a Chair 2000.191
Speicher, Kroll and Bellows 2000.133
Spiritual Potentate 2000.157
Splinter Beach 1998.85
Standing Nude Bending Forward 2000.86
Statuette 2000.105
Study of B.P. 2000.150
Study of Mary 2000.149
Study of My Mother, First Stone 1997.32
Study of My Mother, Second Stone 2000.142
Study, Mrs. R. 2000.148
Sunday 1897 2000.121
Tennis 1997.24
The Actress 2000.185
The Appeal to the People 1997.39
The Appeal to the People 2000.176
The Bacchanale 2000.115
The Barricade, Second Stone 2000.117
The Battle 2000.168
The Black Hat 1997.31
The Charge 2000.118
The Christ of the Wheel 2000.167
The Cigarette 1997.23
The Cigarette 2000.116
The Crowd 1998.2
The Crowd 2000.171
The Dead-Line 2000.160
The Drunk 2000.177
The Drunk, Second Stone 1997.40
The Garden of Growth 2000.170
The Hold-up 1997.26
The Hold-up 2000.129
The Irish Fair 1997.38
The Irish Fair 2000.164
The Journey of Youth 1999.6
The Journey of Youth 2000.162
The Jury 1997.12
The Jury 2000.95
The Last Victim 2000.114
The Law is too Slow 2000.159
The Law is Too Slow 1997.37
The Life Class, First Stone 1997.17
The Life Class, First Stone 2000.108
The Lovers That Passed Him By 2000.173
The Model, Second Stone 2000.122
The Novitiate 2000.99
The Old Rascal 2000.91
The Parlor Critic 2000.126
The Plaid Shaw 2000.155
The Return of the Useless 1998.5
The Return of the Useless 2000.120
The Return to Life 2000.169
The Sawdust Trail 1997.19
The Shower-Bath 1998.4
The Shower-Bath 2000.109
The Street 1997.18
The Studio, Christmas 1916 2000.101
The Tournament 1997.25
The White Hope 1997.28
The White Hope 2000.130
Three Pigs and a Mountain 2000.83
Two Girls 2000.106
W. E. Story, Esq. 2000.143
Wedding 2000.186
Winter Road 1976.2
Workman's Kitchen 2000.102