Art on Sunday #31
Excavation at Night, 1908, George Wesley Bellows, Oil on Canvas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, August 1, 2015 (Pentax K3-II)
Museum signage:
George Bellows was attracted to gritty urban scenes. He painted several images of the construction site of Pennsylvania Station in New York. In this night scene, the cavernous excavation pit is deeper than the height of the dimly lit tenement buildings surrounding its edge. In the foreground, a small campfire sends sparks into the night air. While this project led to faster, safer travel, the construction displaced thousands of poor and working-class families.
Provenance:
Estate of the Artist, 1925; to Emma Story Bellows [1884-1959] (Artist’s wife), New York, NY, 1925; to Estate of Emma Story Bellows, 1959; (H.V. Allison & Co., New York, NY); Albert L. Sylvester [1903-1973] and Elizabeth E. Sylvester, Boston, MA, 1961; to Estate of Elizabeth E. Sylvester, by 1976. (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, NY), by 1992; to (Sotheby’s, Inc., New York, NY), 2004; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2004
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2010.77 (info on this work)
