George Wesley Bellows is unquestionably the most vigorous and complete talent in the recent annals of American art. His sudden and untimely death two years ago probably brought him into national prominence somewhat prematurely, but he was bound to have made a definite place for himself through sheer sincerity. Flourishing in a time when few artists escaped the influence of modernist abstractions, he clung tenaciously to the sharp realism to which he was born, and drew and painted the American scene exclusively.Some of his last canvases gave indication, however, that he had not been entirely immune from influence. Probably his intimacy with Eugene Speicher and Leon Kroll, and his growing admiration for Renoir, had something to do with the lighter key and the more varied color of these late pictures. But it is doubtful if he would have become a "modern" in the accepted sense of the word.His facility became legendary. One of his artist friends has said that he painted with as much ease as most people write letters. At Woodstock where he lived in the summer, he would go off in the morning with his Maratta palette, in which the colors are already mixed, a bundle of paint—rags, and one brush, and return at sunset with four landscapes. Fortunately he knew the dangers of his facility, and exercised rigorous critical selection when exhibiting his work.Lithography seemed a medium made to his hand. Although he worked in it for only ten years, he produced nearly two hundred subjects. Their unabashed subject interest, their keen, sometimes violent satire, and their shrewd humor will do more than his painting to keep his name fresh in the public mind.The reproduction on this page is from one of Bellows' last portrait lithographs, and was presented to the Institute by Mr. Philip Goodwin, of New York. The sitter was Gregory Allen Slader, a friend of Mr. Goodwin's for whom the portrait was made.Referenced Work of Art

1. Head of Gregory, by George Bellows