A Book Review
By late 1915 George Bellows (1882-1925) had become a recognized painter and financial success, allowing him to explore his fascination with lithography. He wrote that he had been doing what he could “to rehabilitate the medium from the stigma of commercialism” attached to it. Apparently he achieved success, for “in just nine years almost single-handedly [Bellows] elevated lithography as an artist’s medium,” writes author Kristin L. Spangenberg.
There the story begins in 12 short pages to explain the history of Bellows’s creative growth and eventual mastery of the art of lithography. Bellows’s lithographic art makes sense when we learn that he enrolled in the New York School of Art headed by William Merritt Chase. It makes sense that one of his teachers was the charismatic Robert Henri, who “urged his students to capture the spirit of daily life,” just as it makes sense to know that Bellows was a talented athlete at Ohio State University and was even scouted by the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
George Bellows: American Life in Print
by Kristin L. Spangenberg
Cincinnati Art Museum in association with D Giles Limited, 2024, 184 pages, hardbound, $55 plus S/H from the Cincinnati Art Museum shop (http://shop.cincinnatiartmuseum.org) or (513) 639-2958, or from D Giles Limited (www.gilesltd.com).
This book is a catalog of the exhibition George Bellows: American Life in Print, which was at the Cincinnati Art Museum from October 25, 2024, through February 9 of this year. The exhibition featured 55 lithographs and drawings by Bellows gifted to the museum and lent by Dr. James J. and Mrs. Lois R. Sanitato of Cincinnati.
The bulk of American Life in Print explains in detail 66 of Bellows’s lithographs and ends with an essay outlining Bellows’s association with the Cincinnati Art Museum and its annual exhibition, which was responsible for bringing esteemed artists to Cincinnati. George Bellows was one such artist who enjoyed a long relationship with the museum, although he never sold a single painting from the annual exhibition. The book concludes with a complete list of Bellows’s exhibitions at the museum, a concordance of lithographs, a select bibliography, and an index, all of which help to ensure the reader’s understanding of the artist.
Originally published in the May 2025 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2025 Maine Antique Digest
