Renowned for his paintings of clandestine boxing matches, Bellows also depicted leisure-time pursuits of the wealthy. He painted Tennis at Newport in his New York studio from sketches he had made the previous summer. The annual tennis tournament at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island was an important sporting event and social occasion. Bellows’s painting emphasizes the setting more than the match; although the players appear in action in the foreground, the spectators strolling about the grounds and lingering on the lawn divert attention away from the contest. Bellows’s blended brushwork and lurid palette evoke both bright, almost blinding light and sweltering heat.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Tennis at Newport
Artist:George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
Date:1919
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:40 in. × 43 1/4 in. (101.6 × 109.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967
Object Number:67.187.121
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Geo Bellows/ 1919
the artist , New York (1919–d. 1925); his widow, Emma S. Bellows, New York (from 1925); [H. V. Allison & Co., New York, until 1944; sold in 1944 to Allen]; Frederic S. Allen, Pelham Manor, N. Y. (from 1944); [H. V. Allison & Co., New York, until 1948; sold on December 21, 1948, for $8,000, to de Groot]; Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York (1948–d. 1967; her bequest to MMA)
New York. H. V. Allison & Co. "Paintings by George Bellows," March 27–April 29, 1944, unnum. brochure (as "Tennis Tournament").
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Sport in American Art," October 10–December 10, 1944, no. 6 (as "Tennis Tournament," lent by Frederic S. Allen).
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Adelaide Milton de Groot Loan Collection," January 10–February 12, 1950, unnum. checklist (as "Tennis Tournament").
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Off for the Holidays: A Loan Exhibition of Holiday Travel, Sites, Pastimes, Sports and Pleasures," April 14–June 6, 1955, no. 61 (lent by Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York).
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "George Bellows: A Retrospective Exhibition," January 19–February 24, 1957, no. 40 (as "Tennis Tournament," lent by Miss Adelaide M. de Groot).
Columbus, Oh. Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. "Paintings by George Bellows," March 21–April 21, 1957, no. 43 (as "Tennis Tournament," lent by Miss Adelaide M. de Groot).
New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs," March 15–May 1, 1966, no. 52 (lent by Adelaide Milton de Groot, New York).
Los Angeles County Museum. "American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 3–July 31, 1966, no. 124 (lent by Adelaide Milton de Groot, 1952).
San Francisco. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. "American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 16–October 16, 1966, no. 124.
New York. National Art Museum of Sport, Madison Square Garden Center, Gallery of Art. "The Artist and the Sportsman," April 18–June 16, 1968, unnumbered cat. (p. 23).
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "A Salute to the Olympics: Sports in Art," July 26–August 18, 1968, no. 15.
New York. Kennedy Galleries. "The Hundredth Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by 100 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York," March 6–29, 1975, no. 7.
Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Art Museum. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–April 21, 1985, unnumbered cat. (p. 101).
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 5–June 30, 1985, unnumbered cat.
New York. National Academy of Design. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," July 16–September 1, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Evanston, Ill. Terra Museum of American Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 15–November 10, 1985, unnumbered cat.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 12, 1985–January 19, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 9–March 30, 1986, unnumbered cat.
St. Paul. Minnesota Museum of Art. "The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 20–June 8, 1986, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Landscape Painting," April 4–August 13, 1989, 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. "American Painting: 1905–1950," April 19–October 7, 1991, no catalogue.
Nashville. Frist Center for the Visual Arts. "Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artist's Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925," August 3–October 28, 2007, no. 37.
New-York Historical Society. "Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artist's Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925," November 18, 2007–February 10, 2008, no. 37.
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Life's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artist's Brush with Leisure, 1895-1925," March 2–May 25, 2008, no. 37.
Ralph Flint. "Bellows and His Art." International Studio 81 (May 1925), p. 81 [possibly this work], calls it "Newport Tennis".
Frank Seiberling, Jr. "George Bellows, 1882-1925, His Life and Development as an Artist." PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1948, p. 43 n1.
George Bellows: A Retrospective Exhibition. Exh. cat., Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1957, p. 19, no. 40, ill. p. 73, notes that it was painted in August 1919 from sketches made at the annual tennis tournament at the Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.
Charles H. Morgan. George Bellows: "Painter of America". New York, 1965, p. 283–84, compares the shadows depicted in the painting to "Shore House" (1911, private collection).
Martha B. Scott. The Artist and the Sportsman. Exh. cat., National Art Museum of Sport, Madison Square Garden Center, Gallery of Art. New York, 1968, pp. 23, 91, ill.
Donald Braider. George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting. Garden City, N.Y., 1971, p. 121.
Stuart P. Feld. Quality: An Experience in Collecting. Exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. New York, 1974, unpaginated, under no. 3, discusses this painting in relation to a larger work of the same title (1920, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Barron U. Kidd); mentions an unfinished replica of the 1920 work (private collection).
Kathleen Howard, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 1983, p. 417, no. 15, ill. (color).
Lowery Stokes Sims. The Figure in 20th Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Jacksonville Art Museum. New York, 1984, pp. 92, 100–101, ill. (color).
John Brandenburg. "Museum's Offerings Tell Story of 20th Century America." Daily Oklahoman/Times (May 30, 1985), p. 15.
John Russell. "Art: Unexpected Juxtapositions in the Met's New Wing." New York Times (January 21, 1987), p. C17.
Valerie Ann Leeds inLife's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure, 1895–1925. Exh. cat., Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tenn. Detroit, 2007, p. 37, ill. (detail), colorpl. 37, dates this work to 1920.
Vincent DiGirolamo inLife's Pleasures: The Ashcan Artists' Brush with Leisure, 1895–1925. Exh. cat., Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tenn. Detroit, 2007, p. 65.
Elizabeth Athens in H. Barbara Weinberg. American Impressionism and Realism: A Landmark Exhibition from the Met. Exh. cat., Queensland Art Gallery. New York, 2009, pp. 182, 328, no. 41, ill. p. 183 (color).
M. Therese Southgate, MD. The Art of JAMA III: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. New York, 2011, pp. 166, 213, ill. p. 167 (color).
Charles Brock inGeorge Bellows. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, 2012, p. 23.
David Park Curry inGeorge Bellows. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 2012, pp. 140–41, colorpl. 44.
Robert Conway inGeorge Bellows. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 2012, p. 324 n. 12.
Glenn C. Peck. George Bellows' Catalogue Raisonné. Online resource [hvallison.com], [2012], unnumbered, ill. (color).
George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
1921
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