The Bridge, Blackwell’s Island

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The Bridge, Blackwell’s Island

Artist George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)

Date1909

DimensionsFrame: 46 × 56 × 4 in. (116.8 × 142.2 × 10.2 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1912.506

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 29A

Label TextThe Queensboro Bridge in New York (also known as the 59th Street Bridge) links Manhattan with Queens, spanning the East River. Midway, the massive piers rest on Blackwell’s Island (now called Roosevelt Island). Painted from the Manhattan side, the painting shows an unlovely vista of drab factories and docks. However, using vibrant colors, thick application of paint, and bold slashes of the brush, George Bellows gives the scene an energy that conveys the excitement of life in the modern American city. By cropping the bridge off at the top, Bellows emphasizes its towering presence. The family of onlookers gazing in wonder at the newly opened double-decker bridge underscores its engineering feat—at the time, the greatest cantilever bridge in the world. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Bellows studied in New York with “Ash Can School” artists Robert Henri and John Sloan (see Movies nearby).Published ReferencesGeorge Bellows' Private Diary of Paintings unpublished MS., on deposit at H.V. Allison & Co., New York, Book A, p. 70 (dated Dec. 1909).

"The Bellows Memorial Exhibition," American Magazine of Art, vol. 16, Dec. 1925, p. 656, repr.

Bellows, E., The Paintings of George Bellows, New York, 1929, pl. 19.

Boswell, P., George Bellows, New York, 1942, p. 16, repr. p. 59.

Rogers, Millard F., "Painting the Particular Place," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 8, no. 2, Summer 1965, repr. (col.) cover, p. 32, repr. p. 33.

Morgan, C., George Bellows, Painter of America, New York, 1965, pp. 102, 104, 125, repr. p. 319.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From howling wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 504, repr. fig. 19, p. 505.

Ryan, Michael, "This museum is for people," Wonderful World of Ohio, vol. 33, no. 2, Feb. 1969, repr. (col.) p. 32.

Braider, D., George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting, Garden City, 1971, pp. 54, 56, repr. pl. 9.

Young, M., The Paintings of George Bellows, New York, 1973, p. 40, repr. (col.) p. 41.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 22-23, pl. 156.

Strickler, Susan E., "American paintings at the Toledo Museum of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, p. 1118, repr. (col.) pl. XVIII.

Andrews, Peter, "A View of Toledo," Connoisseur, vol. 212, no. 849, Nov. 1982, p. 107.

Fleischman, John, "Favorite Son," Ohio Magazine, June 1983, p. 27.

O'Brian, John, David Milne and the modern tradition of painting, Toronto, 1983, p. 52, repr. fig. 11.

Kelly, Franklin, "George Bellow's Shore house," Studies in the History of Art, (Wash., NGA), no. 37, 1990, p. 120, 121, fig. 4.

Quick, MIchael, et. al, The paintings of George Bellows, Fort Worth, 1992, pp. 21, 24-26, 34, 136-137, 150, fig. 19, p. 25 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 153, repr. (col.).

Setford, David & John Wilmerding, George Bellows: love of winter, West Palm Beach, 1997, p. 45, 46, fig. 37, repr. p. 114 (no. 24).

Haverstock, Mary Sayre, George Bellows: an artist in action, London, Merrell, 2007, p. 55, repr. (col.).

Haskell, Barbara, Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time, Munich, Hirmer Verlag, 2009, p. 19, fig. 5 (col.), p. 19.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 295, repr. (col.).

Edward Hopper, Blackwell's Island, New York, Christie's, May 23, 2013, repr. col. p. 16.

Brock, Charles, George Bellows, Munich, Prestel, 2012, fig. 4, p. 108, repr. (col.) p. 108.

Wolfe, M. Melissa ed., George Bellows: Revisited, New Considerations of the Painter's Oeuvre, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, pp. 62-65, repr. fig. 4-6, p. 63.

Exhibition HistoryBerlin, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Ausstellung Amerikanischer Kunst, 1910, no. 26.

Munich Royal Society, 1910.

New York, NAD, 1910, no. 258.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Bellows Memorial Exhibition, 1925, no. 9, repr.

Columbus, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, 1931.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Realists, 1900-1914, 1937, no.2.

Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, American Landscape, Annual Exhibition Arranged by Students of the Museum Class, 1941.

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, George Bellows, 1946, no. 7, repr. p. 16.

Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada; Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Two Cities Collect, 1948, no. 2, repr.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings Acquired by the Toledo Museum 1901-1951, 1951.

New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, 1986, repr. (col.)

Toledo The Toledo Museum of Art, George Bellows and New York, 1900-1930, Feb. 14 - Apr. 21, 2013 (gallery 18, University of Michigan student show).