1920
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Tennis is a 1920 by George Bellows, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a bold lithograph of tennis players and spectators in crisp white clothes on a sunny day. The crowd stands out more than the game—Bellows painted them like fashion plates, not just fans. Their hats and gowns catch the light, while the players move in sharp shadows. This wasn’t just sport art. Bellows used the Newport Casino’s glamour to show how tennis tied to high society in 1920. Look up George Bellows (American, 1882–1925) next.
During the late 1910s, while summer vacationing with his family in the small town of Middletown, Rhode Island, Bellows took time to attend tennis matches hosted nearby at the Newport Casino, a mecca for high-society locals and visitors. In two resultant lithographs, Tennis and The Tournament, greater emphasis is placed on the fashionable spectators assembled to watch the matches than on the sporting activity itself. Bellows appears to imply that at such elite gatherings, audiences were present not only to see, but to be seen.
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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