1914
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Seated Boy is a 1914 by George Bellows, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A boy sits on the ground, leaning back on one hand, legs bent and crossed at the ankles. His shirt is loose, his hair messy, his face calm but tired. He looks like he’s taking a break near water. This sketch was likely made while Bellows planned a bigger artwork showing boys at play along a river. It may have been a study for a figure on a raft in his print *River-Front*. The word “raft” is scribbled beneath the drawing, a clue to its purpose. Bellows drew many young figures in motion, but this one feels still, almost quiet. Look next at The Cleveland Museum of Art.
The seated youth in this drawing was probably made as a study for one of the many young boys in George Bellows’s lithographs Splinter Beach and River-Front or their related paintings. The inscription “raft” below the figure suggests that the pose was intended for the large raft in the River-Front composition, although a pose with greater similarity appears on the shoreline in the same print. Bellows’s quick sketch captures the wiry, perhaps undernourished physique and the darting eyes of the young man.
Bellows made several compositions of boys swimming and lounging on the banks of the East River in New York City, based on studies such as this one.
Read the full account in the museum source.
George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City.
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