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Artwork Details
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Title:Mrs. Chester Dale
Artist:George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
Date:1919
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:42 1/2 x 40 in. (108 x 101.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of The Chester Dale Collection, 1954
Object Number:54.196.2
Inscription: Signed (twice, upper right and lower right): Geo Bellows
Chester Dale, New York (1919–54; commissioned from the artist in summer 1919; purchased on October 14, 1919; his gift to MMA)
Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Art Gallery. "Twenty-First Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists," April 24–June 19, 1927, no. 5 (as "Portrait of Mrs. Dale").
Rochester, N.Y. Memorial Art Gallery. "Summer Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings," Summer 1927, no. 24 (as "Portrait of Mrs. Chester Dale," lent by Mrs. Dale).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Twentieth Century Portraits," December 9, 1942–January 24, 1943, unnumbered cat. (p. 79; lent by the Chester Dale Collection, New York).
New York. 460 Park Avenue Gallery. "Portraits of American Women: From Romanticism to Surrealism," December 5–29, 1945, no. 3 (lent from the Chester Dale Collection).
Art Institute of Chicago. "George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints," January 31–March 10, 1946, no. 33 (as "Portrait of Mrs. Chester Dale," lent by The Chester Dale Collection, New York).
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "George Bellows: A Retrospective Exhibition," January 19–February 24, 1957, no. 36 (dated July 1919).
Columbus, Oh. Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. "Paintings by George Bellows," March 21–April 21, 1957, no. 40.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist (as "Mrs. Chester Dale [Maud Murray, 1883-1953]").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Moscow. State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Representations of America," December 15, 1977–February 15, 1978, no catalogue.
Leningrad. State Hermitage Museum. "Representations of America," March 15–May 15, 1978, no catalogue.
Minsk, Belarus. Palace of Art. "Representations of America," June 15–August 15, 1978, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "As They Were: 1900–1929," April 9–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
Rosamund Frost. "Portraits: Likeness or Commentary?" Art News 41 (December 15–31, 1942), p. 24, ill. p. 23.
Frederick A. Sweet inGeorge Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1946, pp. 21, 41, no. 33, ill. p. 38, notes that this work was painted in July 1919 in Middletown, Rhode Island; the second of two versions [the first version is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.]; states that it was Bellows' only commissioned portrait of a woman.
George Bellows: A Retrospective Exhibition. Exh. cat., Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1957, p. 19, no. 36, ill. p. 71, calls it the first version of the two July 1919 portraits of this sitter.
Geoffrey T. Hellman. "Profiles: Custodian." New Yorker (October 25, 1958), pp. 52, 63.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 40–41, ill.
Charles H. Morgan. George Bellows: "Painter of America". New York, 1965, p. 224–25, describes the difficulty Bellows encountered working with sitter, noting that he began the commission in the spring of 1919, creating two portraits in the Dales' New York apartment (now lost or destroyed); the artist then traveled to Rhode Island where he painted two successful versions (this work and "Maud Dale," 1919, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
Donald Braider. George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting. Garden City, N.Y., 1971, pp. 119–120.
Mahonri Sharp Young. The Paintings of George Bellows. New York, 1973, p. 114, colorpl. 47, calls it the first version painted in Rhode Island.
Margaret C. S. Christman. Portraits by George Bellows. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC, 1981, p. 24.
Trinkett Clark inBellows: The Boxing Pictures. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, D.C., 1983, p. 105.
Michael Quick inThe Paintings of George Bellows. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex. New York, 1992, p. 71.
Kimberly A. Jones in Kimberly A. Jones and Maygene Daniels. The Chester Dale Collection. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2009, pp. 1, 23, 158 n. 4, p. 161 n. 133.
Maygene Daniels in Kimberly A. Jones and Maygene Daniels. The Chester Dale Collection. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2009, pp. 135, 140.
Glenn C. Peck. George Bellows' Catalogue Raisonné. Online resource [hvallison.com], [2012], unnumbered, ill. (color), calls it "Mrs. Dale in Red Coat (Mrs. Chester Dale).
George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
1917
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