Tennis Tournament
George Bellows
GEORGE BELLOWS, 1920. OIL ON CANVAS.
When he passed away at the age of 42, George Bellows was regarded as one of the greatest American artists of his day. Today, his fame has waned and he is no longer the household name he once was. Yet Bellows is well worth remembering for his vivid, enigmatic and striking portraits of New York, that straddled class and politics. Bellows was part of a group of anarchist, liberal artists and activists known as ‘The Lyrical Left’, advocating for individual rights and freedom. Yet Bellows was often at odds with the group – he saw artistic freedom as tantamount, and far more important than ideological politics. Bellows depicted tenement housing, boxing matches and the lower classes of the city, but he also mingled with the high society. Here, he depicts a tennis tournament in Rhode Island as both a social event and a sporting one. His interest is in the setting, the atmosphere, the palpable, searing heat, more than it is about the tennis. He captures a slice of life, a vignette of existence in broad, vivid strokes.