Indoor Athlete No. 1 by George Wesley Bellows

Indoor Athlete No. 1 by George Wesley Bellows

Indoor Athlete No. 1

George Wesley Bellows

Title

Indoor Athlete No. 1

 
Artist
Year
1921  
Technique
lithograph 
Image Size
6 1/2 x 9 7/8" image 
Signature
pencil, lower right: "Geo Bellows", lower left in stone "GB" 
Edition Size
21 
Annotations
pencil titled and pencil signed by the printer "Bolton Brown - imp." 
Reference
Mason 81; Bellows 62; Meyers/Ayres figure 75, page 86. 
Paper
thin antique-white wove vellum. 
State
i/i. 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
22094 
Price
SOLD
Description

This impression has the original label from Bellows' original dealers, "H.V. Allison & Co., Inc / 32 East 57th Street / New York 22, N.Y."

"Indoor Athlete No. 1" was the first of four lithographs Bellows did in 1921 with printer Bolton Brown that featured billiard and pool players. A study drawing of man is in the Boston Public Library. Bellows had first recorded this as 'Murphy Playing Pool' but changed the title to 'Indoor Athlete No.1.'

Jane Myers and Linda Ayres, in their book 'George Bellows: The Artist and His Lithographs 1916-1924', published by the Amon Carter Museum in 1988, comment about this work on pages 81-87:

"Bellows emphasized the strategy of a game he frequently played with (Robert) Henri. Although their identities are no longer known, the characters in these prints were drawn from Bellows' own circle of friends."