The Amon Carter Museum of American Art got a new addition to its gallery that, according to museum executive director Andrew Walker, could be "one of the museum's most significant acquisitions in the last 10 years."
The museum announced the acquisition of 20th-century artist George Bellows' The Fisherman, a work Bellows painted in 1917 while visiting Big Sur and Point Lobos in Carmel, Calif. The painting will be on display at the Amon Carter museum beginning Dec. 21.
“In this bold, dramatic painting Bellows used his signature exuberant brushstrokes and thick oil paint along with a palette of brilliant hues to depict the raw power of the ocean,” says Shirley Reece-Hughes, curator of paintings and sculpture. “The subject of the lone fisherman trying to harness nature suggests the ethos of the physical and ideological manhood of Bellows' generation that stemmed from President Theodore Roosevelt's belief in the ‘strenuous life.' ”
The painting will be showcased alongside another Bellows work, A Stag at Sharkeys (1909), which depicts a boxing scene. The museum already has 230 lithographs by Bellows.
“Bellows is perhaps most famous for his gritty depictions of early 20th-century New York urban life, but he was equally adept at depicting the powerful force of the American landscape," Walker said. "[The Fisherman] adds invaluable depth to our collection and will surely become a visitor favorite.”
