Dance at Insane Asylum

George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)

1907

Medium
Charcoal, with stumping, pen and black ink, brown crayon, and touches of white chalk on ivory wove paper
Classification
Drawing and Watercolor
Dimensions
48 × 63 cm (18 15/16 × 24 13/16 in.)
Culture
United States
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
Credit line
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Rights
Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Art Institute of Chicago

About this work

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, George Bellows studied at the New York School of Art, along with Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. He became one of the leading realist painters of his time and was also a masterful draftsman. His energetic drawings and lithographs—often rendered on a large scale, as in the examples shown here—suggest a spontaneous approach, though they also reveal his dedication to theoretical studies of proportion. This haunting yet spirited mixed-media drawing served as a study for the lithograph Dance in a Madhouse, created some 10 yeas later.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0