Riguardo questo articolo
GEORGE BELLOWS ILLUSTRATES H.G. WELLS. BREAKFAST IS SERVED: Conté crayon on card. Sheet: 26 5/16" x 20 5/8" (669mm x 526mm) Ruled: 554mm x 449mm Signed "Geo Bellows" at lower left (within the image) Titled as above and numbered ("-7-") in graphite (below the image) 1922. MR. BARNSTAPLE AWAKES:Conté crayon on card (blind-stamped at upper right: "STRATHMORE DRAWING BOARD"). Sheet: 29 1/8" x 22 1/4" (741mm x 563mm) Ruled: 555mm x 449mm Signed "Geo Bellows." at upper right (within the image) Titled ("Mr Barnstable Awakes.") and numbered ("-7-") in graphite (below the image) 1922.Publications:George Bellows Record Book B, p. 292 (no. 8: Mr Barnstaple Awakes., no. 9: Breakfast is Served), Hearst s International vol. XLIII (January, 1923) pp. 36 (Breakfast) and 37 (Barnstaple).Provenance:H.V. Allison & Co., ca. 1941;Charles Shipman Payson, likely before 1965;Virginia Kraft Payson (his widow). [Condition report available.] One of the most dynamic American artists of the early XXc, George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925) enjoyed significant acclaim during his lifetime. These two Conté (graphite or charcoal in a clay medium, formed into rectangular prisms) drawings were commissioned to illustrate H.G. Wells's 1923 novel Men Like Gods, which was serialized in Hearst's International magazine (beginning with vol. XLIII, January 1923, pp. 32-38, 124-125). The International, which would be subsumed by Cosmopolitan in 1925, made literature available to a vast audience; in the same issue were pieces by Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham and Edith Wharton. These drawings were reproduced on pp. 36 (Breakfast is Served) and 37 (Mr. Barnstaple Awakes) of the first part of Men Like Gods: the disillusioned journalist Mr. Barnstaple is transported from the XXc "Age of Confusion" to a parallel utopian world governed by reason, peace, and cooperation; there is no war, no religion, no poverty or disease. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was a direct response to the novel, mocking its optimism. Bellows's illustrations for this story have an unusually refined serenity; the seemingly perfect world is a striking contrast to Bellows's better-known rough-hewn city scenes. The drawings were made during Bellows's vibrant lithographic period between 1921 and 1924, when he installed a press in his studio and collaborated closely with master printer Bolton Brown. The "crayon" effect of Conté is well-translated to lithography. Bellows's partnership with Brown yielded more than one hundred lithographs, helping to advance the cause of the medium as a respected fine art form. The present works, however, appear never to have been sold as lithographs. Of note is the preparatory sketch for Barnstaple's head -- in a slightly altered pose -- on the verso of Mr. Barnstaple Awakes; perhaps Bellows began the drawing on that side and abandoned it, or else used the otherwise blank space to work out an idea. Following Bellows's death in 1925, these drawings were entrusted to Harry V. Allison, who worked Bellows's widow Emma to manage the artist's estate. Allison established H.V. Allison & Co. in 1941 with his son Gordon, which sold American paintings and prints as well as representing the Bellows estate. Sometime between 1941 and 1985, the works were acquired by Charles Shipman Payson (1898-1985) -- husband of Joan Whitney Payson (1903-1975), Whitney family heiress and a co-founder of the New York Mets, noted philanthropist, and distinguished art collector. The drawings were probably displayed at Greentree, the Whitneys' 600-acre estate in Long Island, a candidate for the Gatsby mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby. Designed by William Delano (architect of metropolitan haunts such as the Knickerbocker Club), Greentree was a wedding gift from Joan's parents. While the house's contents -- excluding the artwork -- were sold through Doyle in 1984, the drawings remained in the Payson collection. After Payson's death, the drawings passed to his widow Virginia Kraft Payson. Codice articolo Bellows
Contatta il venditore
Segnala questo articolo
