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My Mother

A work made of oil on canvas.

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  • A work made of oil on canvas.

Date:

March 1921

Artist:

George Wesley Bellows
American, 1882–1925

About this artwork

“There she would sit, as in a throne,” a niece once recalled of George Bellows’s mother, Anna. In this painting, which evokes the Parisian interiors of such French artists as Édouard Manet, Bellows depicted his mother in a large chair in the Victorian parlor of their family home in Columbus, Ohio. This forthright presentation of a distinguished, elderly woman with a strong character, coupled with the subdued palette, also recalls the portraiture of Thomas Eakins, whom Bellows greatly admired. The painting’s power derives in part from its highly structured composition. Influenced by the artist Jay Hambidge’s theory of dynamic symmetry, Bellows constructed the portrait in an organized, geometric arrangement of proportionate rectangles and triangles.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

George Wesley Bellows

Title

My Mother

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1921

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed lower right: Geo Bellows

Dimensions

210.8 × 124.5 cm (83 × 49 in.)

Credit Line

Frank Russell Wadsworth Memorial

Reference Number

1923.975

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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