# Dance at Insane Asylum

- By: George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)
- Date: 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
- Credit line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/22800)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/5f13adfe-6944-5963-f114-b69aa21dfeef/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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