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Lot Essay
At the invitation of fellow artist, Eugene Speicher, George Bellows came for an extended visit to Woodstock, New York in the spring of 1920. He quickly became enamored with this bucolic village nestled in the Catskill Mountains. Besides great mountain scenery, the place had become quite popular with New York City based artists. Beginning in 1906, the Art Students League held summer teaching sessions there, and with the formation of the Woodstock Artists Association in 1919, resident artists had a local place where they could exhibit their work. During this stay Bellows completed thirteen landscapes of the surrounding countryside, as well as securing a house to rent for the ensuing summer and fall. He returned that summer with his wife, two young daughters, mother Anna and Aunt Elinor for a productive season of painting and socializing. While he not only continued to paint the local scenery, he also found the time to compose some of his finest portraits, using his extended family as models. When fall arrived the family dispersed back to the city, but Bellows remained behind to work hard on another series of landscapes. Autumn brought both the beauty of the changing foliage and clear, crisp skies that the artist so loved to paint. He finished another thirty landscapes between October and his return home to New York the following month.
Mountain House is one of the last canvases that he finished during this period, and in it Bellows combines all the elements of composition, color and light found in his best work. The key to the success of this painting is the seasonal light. Much like in a photograph, the lower arc of the sun allows its rays to delineate the house and porch, while at the same time bringing out the intense hues of the surrounding trees and shrubbery. Bellows completed this bold, forceful image with a stunning backdrop of wind-swept clouds crossing majestic purple mountains.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Glenn C. Peck in cooperation with the artist's daughter.
Special thank to Mr. Peck for his his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.
Mountain House is one of the last canvases that he finished during this period, and in it Bellows combines all the elements of composition, color and light found in his best work. The key to the success of this painting is the seasonal light. Much like in a photograph, the lower arc of the sun allows its rays to delineate the house and porch, while at the same time bringing out the intense hues of the surrounding trees and shrubbery. Bellows completed this bold, forceful image with a stunning backdrop of wind-swept clouds crossing majestic purple mountains.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Glenn C. Peck in cooperation with the artist's daughter.
Special thank to Mr. Peck for his his assistance with the cataloguing of this lot.