“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.
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.
“Illustrations of Acquisitions,” Art Institute of Chicago 45th Annual Report (1923), 65 (ill.).
“The Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 17, 9 (December, 1923), 102 (ill.).
American Art Annual 20 (The American Federation of Arts, 1923), 24 (ill.).
Emma S. Bellows, The Paintings of George Bellows (Alfred A. Knopf, 1929), pl. 113.
Walter Gutman, “George Bellows,” Art in America 27, 2 (February, 1929),107 (ill.), as Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.
George W. Eggers, George Bellows (American Artists Series, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931), 49 (ill.), as Portrait of My Mother (No. 2).
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), 135 (ill.), 136, as Portrait of My Mother.
John Shapley, ed., The Index of Twentieth Century Artists 1, 6 (College Art Association, March 1934), 127.
John Shapley, ed., The Index of Twentieth Century Artists 2, 12 (College Art Association, September 1934), xix.
Harold J. Bailey, “George Bellows’ Painting: My Mother,” The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly 22, 2 (April 1935), 74 (ill.), 75, 78–79.
Josephine Hancock Logan, Sanity in Art (A. Kroch, 1937), 85 (ill.).
“Chicago Art Institute: Its French Exhibit is Tops, Its School Best in Midwest,” Life 11,10 (September 8, 1941), 60 (ill.)
Daniel Catton Rich, “The Art Institute of Chicago—And Chicago,” Art in America 32,4 (October 1944), 250, as Portrait of His Mother.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 22.
Charles H. Morgan, George Bellows: Painter of America (Reynal, 1965)., 13, 244, 266, 300, 359 (ill).
Donald Braider, George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting (Doubleday, 1971), 137.
Michael Quick, et al., The Paintings of George Bellows, exh. cat. (Amon Carter Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992), 2, 211, 219, ill. fig. 47, 220.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), 68, 70–73, cat. 17 (ill.).
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118th Annual Exhibition, Feb. 4–Mar. 25, 1923, cat. 65, ill. p. 24.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute Department of Fine Arts, An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Lithographs by George Bellows, Feb. 26–Mar. 31, 1923, cat. 34 as Portrait of My Mother. (Probably not AIC version)
Detroit Institute of Arts, Ninth Annual Exhibition, Apr. 11–May 31, 1923, cat. 9 as Portrait of My Mother. (Possibly AIC version)
St. Louis, The City Art Museum, Eighteenth Annual Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists, Sept. 15–Oct. 24, 1923, cat. 6, ill. no. 6.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty–sixth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, Nov. 1–Dec. 9, 1923, cat. 12 (ill.).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Memorial Exhibition of the Work of George Bellows, Oct. 12–Nov. 22, 1925, cat. 44, ill. p. 86, as Portrait of My Mother.
Paris, Galerie de la Chambre Syndicale des Beaux–Arts, The Art Patrons of America Inc., Exhibition of American Art, June 9–July 5, 1926, cat. 8 as Portrait of My Mother. (Possibly not AIC version)
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 432.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 498.
Art Institute of Chicago, George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Jan. 31–Mar. 10, 1946, cat. 46, ill. p. 52.
London, The Tate Gallery, American Painting From the Eighteenth Century to Present Day, Jun–July 1946, cat. 15.
Ohio, Dayton Art Institute, The Artist and His Family, Mar. 3–Apr. 30, 1950, cat. 1.
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, George Bellows: A Retrospective, Jan. 19–Feb. 24, 1957, cat. 50, ill. p. 84; Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, as Paintings by George Bellows, Mar. 21–Apr. 21, 1957, cat. 54.
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, Mar. 15, 1966–May 1, 1966, cat. 61, pp. 9, 36 (ill.).
Los Angeles, Ca., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Paintings of George Bellows, Feb. 16–May 10, 1992, no cat. num., fig. 47, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, June 5–Aug. 20, 1992, Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Museum of Art, Oct. 11, 1992–Jan. 3, 1993, Fort Worth, Tex., Amon Carter Museum, Feb. 20–May 9, 1993.
The artist; purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923.
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