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Boy with Baseball

George Luks American
ca. 1925
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
Having moved from Philadelphia to New York in 1896, Luks began work for the New York World, taking over as illustrator of the popular comic strip "The Yellow Kid," which described the adventures of a band of streetwise kids on the Lower East Side. Cheerful young denizens of the slums also appear in Luks' paintings of New York. Seeking respite from urban hurly-burly during the 1920s, Luks purchased a farmhouse in Old Chatham, New York, a rural town about 130 miles north of Manhattan. During summers there, he made portraits of some of his neighbors, including the young man who posed for Boy with Baseball. Unlike Luks' earlier paintings of children, which are infused with urban energy and the vitality of youth—his sitters' and his own—Boy with Baseball is static, composed of flat patches of color applied with broad brushstrokes. It suggests the tranquility that Luks had found in his pastoral habitat.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Boy with Baseball
  • Artist: George Luks (American, Williamsport, Pennsylvania 1866–1933 New York)
  • Date: ca. 1925
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection, Gift of Edward J. Gallagher Jr., 1954
  • Object Number: 54.10.2
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Horse Trolley, New York City, George Luks American, Watercolor and pencil on paper, American
Horse Trolley, New York City
George Luks
ca. 1908–10
Man and Woman Dancing, George Luks American, Conté crayon and ink wash on paper, American
Man and Woman Dancing
George Luks
ca. 1921
Two Seated Figures, George Luks American, Conté crayon on paper, American
Two Seated Figures
George Luks
ca. 1921
Seated Woman and Poodle, George Luks American, Crayon on paper, American
Seated Woman and Poodle
George Luks
ca. 1922
Boy with Violin, George Luks American, Oil on canvas, American
Boy with Violin
George Luks
ca. 1922

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George Luks - Boy with Baseball - American - The Metropolitan Museum of Art