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George Bellows 'George Wesley Bellows'

Study of my Mother, First Stone

George Bellows's original lithograph, Study of my Mother, First Stone, was printed in a very small edition of nine impressions in 1921. It is pencil signed under the image to the lower left by the artist's lithographic printer, Bolton Coit Brown, but not signed in pencil by George Bellows. Leroy Latham (1874-1938), Chairman of Latham Lithographing Company in New York, was the initial owner of this print. On the original matt he made for this lithograph he wrote the following words, "Geo. Bellows - his Mother. Bought from Bellows's wife soon after his death."

No posthumous impressions of George Bellows's lithographs exist. A number of his original lithographs, however, were left unsigned due to his sudden death in 1925. Impressions sold from his estate thus usually bear his name and the letters, "E.S.B.", standing for the name of his widow, Emma Story Bellows. As this impression lacks these letters one may assume that Latham purchased the print very shortly after the passing of George Bellows.

The lithographic art of George Bellows forms a most important chapter in the history of early twentieth century American art. James Watrous writes, "Although Bellows had once created an admirable etching of a studio -- 'Robert Henri's Night Class', with the members at their easels painting the nude model -- he favored lithography which satisfied more readily his preferences for a broad kind of draftsmanship, frequently combined with a pervasive chiaroscuro of atmospheric lights and darks. The responsiveness of the medium to Bellows's varying needs for dramatic effects -- sensations of power and strength, luminous clarities, or linear simplicities -- was a demonstration to other American artists-printmakers that lithography could serve well in achieving splendid coalescences of content, style and technique." *.

Title:	Study of my Mother, First Stone
Artist:	Bellows, George Wesley 'George Bellows' (Columbus, Ohio - 1882 - New York, 1925)
Date:	1921
Medium:	Original Lithograph
Printer:	Bolton Brown
Note:	George Bellows, 'George Wesley Bellows': One of America's most important artists of the early twentieth century, George Wesley Bellows first attended The Ohio State University in 1901. Shortly before graduating in 1904 he quit the school and moved to New York, studying under Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. Henri was a major inspiration for New York's 'Ashcan School' -- artists who focused on scenes of everyday life and people, and George Bellows became perhaps its greatest painter and printmaker.
	The artistic career of George Bellows was quick to take off. He rented his own studio in 1906, taught at the Art Students League in 1909 and exhibited his work at the famous Armory Show in 1913. During this latter year he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design, becoming at the age of thirty its youngest member ever.
	George Bellows created his first lithograph in 1916. For the last decade of his short life this medium would prove to be his major artistic method. He equipped his own studio with a lithographic press and stones and formed fortunate working partnerships with the two of America's greatest lithographic printers, firstly, George C. Miller and later, Bolton Coit Brown (1865-1936). Brown was a lithographic artist as well as a fine printer. He believed the role of the artistic printer was a vital step in the creation of the lithograph and thus countersigned Bellows's lithographs as well as those he printed for other artists.
	In 1921 George Bellows created two lithographic portraits of his mother (Lauris Mason #122 & 123). One should also make mention of another lithograph Bellows created during this year, Sunday Going to Church (Lauris Mason #73). A remembrance of his boyhood in Columbus in 1897 it depicts the entire Bellows family crammed into a surrey and wearing their 'Sunday best'. The teenaged George Bellows is anything but at ease. Conversely his mother smiles contentedly in the back seat.
	Religion and the church were major subjects within the art of George Bellows, as one can see in such lithographs as Village Prayer Meeting, The Sawdust Trail and Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was an evangelical demagogue of the day. Growing up in the Bible Belt, Bellows had a strong distaste for such individuals. He wrote, "Do you known, I believe Billy Sunday is the worst thing that has ever happened to America? He is against freedom, he wants a religious autocracy, he is such a reactionary that he makes me an anarchist". **
	Religion and the portraits Bellows made of his mother must have been inseparable. Anna Bellows, nee Smith, was a staunch Methodist. She forbid the child to play outdoors on Sundays but at least permitted him to draw while she recited passages of the Bible to him. She also wished fervently that he would become a Methodist Reverend. Thus George Bellows's adult relationship to his mother must have been both complex and somewhat strained, and this I feel is what comes to the fore in this masterpiece entitled, Study of my Mother, First Stone.
	In a dark parlour sits an aged Anna Bellows. Her hands rest passively on her lap, her gaze is stoical and unmoving. She seems to neither enjoy nor greatly dislike the fact that her portrait is being drawn. If anything she looks slightly uncomfortable. In a manner she is portrayed as a monument, bearing all the travails of a long life.
	Today the art of George Wesley Bellows will be found in America's most important collections such as, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, United States Library of Congress, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The Cleveland Museum of Art includes an impression of Study of my Mother, First Stone in its permanent collection.
Provenance:	This orignal George Bellows lithograph entitled, Study of my Mother, First Stone hails from the estate of LeRoy Latham (1874-1938) and thence to his heirs. LeRoy Latham was Chairman of Latham Lithographing Company (Latham Litho & Printing Co.), also listed as the (Latham Lith. & Ptg. Co.). Situated in Brooklyn, New York, it was one of America's largest lithographic printing establishments in the early twentieth century. His large print collection consisted of many examples of French and British nineteenth century lithographs as well as contemporary American lithographs, etchings and wood engravings.
Reference:	* & ** James W. Watrous, A Century of American Printmaking, 1880 - 1980, Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1984. Quotations on pp. 55 & 56 () and p. 54 (*). Mason #122. First and only edition of nine impressions as printed by Bolton Brown in 1921.
Raisonne:	Lauris Mason & Joan Ludman, The Lithographs of George Bellows: A Catalogue Raisonne, New York, KTO Press, 1977.
Edition:	Limited edition of nine impression.
Size:	10 1/8 X 7 1/4 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.)
	Housed in Mr. Leroy Latham's original paper matt bearing the following words, "Geo. Bellows - his Mother. Bought from Bellows's wife soon after his death."
Condition:	Printed upon fine chine colle paper and with margins extending one inch on both sides, 3/4 of an inch on the bottom, and 1/4 of an inch on the top. A very small tear (measuring less than 1/8 of an inch) is also on the top margin. Still housed in its original matt, paper tape has been applied to both upper corners. Signed in the stone with the artist's 'G.B.' monogram and signed in pencil by the printer, Bolton Brown. A finely printed impression and in good condition throughout. Study of my Mother, First Stone represents both a scarce and important, original example of the famous art of George Wesley Bellows.
Note:	Mr. Latham's original paper matt bearing his writing is included with this purchase.
Subject:	George Bellows, George Wesley Bellows, original lithograph, Study of my Mother, First Stone, Bolton Brown, 'Ashcan School', Leroy Latham, America's most important artists of the early twentieth century.
Price:	Sold - The price is no longer available.
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Original Lithograph by the American artist, George Bellows, 'George Wesley Bellows'.

Study of my Mother, First Stone

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