In January 1914 George Bellows wrote to a friend, “There has been none of my favorite snow. I must always paint the snow at least once a year.” Soon after, on February 13, a major blizzard hit New York City, inspiring the artist to paint Love of Winter. He used bright reds, yellows, and greens to intensify the winter scene and broad, slashing brushstrokes to convey movement, wind, and speed. The energetic group of skaters and onlookers, composed of people of a range of ages and social classes, reflects the diverse populations who enjoyed the public parks and the leisure activities they offered in early 20th-century New York City.
Date
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“Acquisitions,” Friends of American Art Fifth Year Book, 1914–1915 (1915), 22, 34 (ill.).
Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 9 (1915), 25 (ill.).
“Catalogue of Artists and Acquisitions,” Friends of American Art Sixth Year Book, 1916–1918 (1918), 9.
Friends of American Art Announcement (Art Institute of Chicago, 1919), ill.
The Art Institute of Chicago Handbook of Paintings and Drawings (Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), 39.
A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), 142.
John Shapley, ed., “George Wesley Bellows—Painter and Graver,” Index of Twentieth Century Artists (1934), 90.
Peyton Boswell, Jr., George Bellows (Crown Publishers, 1942), 63 (ill.).
Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 22.
“The Beauty of America in Great American Art,” Country Beautiful (1965), 118–19 (ill.).
Charles H. Morgan, George Bellows, Painter of America (New York: Reynal, 1965), 177, 195.
Donald Braider, George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting (Doubleday, 1971), 92.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 342–344, no. 186.
Judith A. Barter, et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), cat. 83.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017), 92.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by George Bellows, Dec. 10, 1914–Jan. 3, 1915, cat. 19.
Milwaukee Art Institute, An Exhibition of Forty Paintings Presented to the Art Institute of Chicago by the Friends of American Art, Mar. 1–29, 1925, cat. 4.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 431.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 497.
Art Institute of Chicago, George Bellows Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Jan. 23–Mar. 10, 1946, cat. 23.
Milwaukee–Downer College, Wisconsin, A Century of Landscape Painting by American Artists, 1851–1951, Feb. 13–Mar. 23, 1951, cat. no. 14.
Illinois, Wheaton College, Exhibition, Apr. 3–June 12, 1951, no cat.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Mar. 8–Apr. 3, 1955, pl. 41.
Normal, Illinois State University Student Union Building, One Hundred Years of Painting, 1857–1957, Mar. 17–Apr. 5, 1957, cat. 3.
West Palm Beach, Florida, Norton Museum of Art, George Bellows: Love of Winter, Dec. 6, 1997–Feb. 8, 1998; Newark Museum, Mar. 7–May 31, 1998; Columbus Museum of Art, July 10–Sept. 13, 1998.
Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, George Bellows, June 10–Oct. 8, 2012; Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nov. 13, 2012–Feb. 18, 2013; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Mar. 16–June 9, 2013.
The artist, 1914; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1914.
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