?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
GEORGE BELLOWS The Drunk, First Stone.
Lithograph, 1923-24. 395x328 mm; 15 1/2x12 7/8 inches, full margins. Edition of 35. Signed "Geo. Bellows" and initialed "J.B.B." by the artist's daughter, Jean Bellows Booth, in pencil, lower right, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
This design by Bellows was used as an illustration for an article by Mabel Potter Daggett, written in support of the Volstead Prohibition Act, in Good Housekeeping, February 1924. Mason 169A.
