GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS Men of the Docks 1912 oil on canvas, 114.3 × 161.3 cm (image: georgewesleybellows.org)
Visit gallery B at London’s National Gallery and you will see important works by European artists such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and Claude Monet. Placed alongside those works is a large painting entitled Men of the Docks by American painter George Bellows. It caught my eye there during a recent visit, something of an exciting excursion which contrasts against the usual means of viewing art via swiping on a smart device.
I was immediately attracted to the atmosphere of the painting with it’s strained winter light reflecting off the cold and distorted features of the dockers in the foreground and the impressive hull of a steam ship stretching off into the background.
According to National Gallery curator Christopher Riospelle, the painting Men of the Docks was acquired by the gallery in 2014 as part of a initiative to expand the collection beyond just European based artists, hence the inclusion of the American Bellows, albeit with the artistic style remaining within the European realist tradition.
George Bellows (1882-1925), was an Ohio born realist painter who’s relatively short lifespan produced artwork of historical significance that often contained hard hitting social commentary. His urban scenes depict an America in flux at the turn of the 20th century - vast construction projects such the excavation works for Penn Station, the building of the Manhattan skyline - symbols of not only New York City and America, but also the modern world.
Yet for Bellows the shiny new world was, in a sense, often just a backdrop. He was also interested in the visceral human communities that were placed squarely into the very fabric of these backdrops: Immigrants from Europe looking for a better life, rag doll children, and boxers in down market sports events. Critics of the day referred to Bellows as one of the ‘apostles of ugliness’.
Although he and his contemporaries were highly political in their work, they were also likely taking their cue from the realist European artists that they were trying to connect to artistically, such as Joaquín Sorolla, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, all of who often made art about communities of lower social standing.
GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS Men of the Docks (detail) 1912 (Image: nationalgallery)
Men of the Docks was painted in early 1912, and shows part of the Hudson and the dockside covered with snow. The vast wall of the ship’s hull contributes greatly to the overall scale of the scene. The photographic reproduction does not do the artwork justice. It is bisected vertically in the centre by a figure standing in the close foreground (almost appears to jump out!) who’s back is turned from the viewer. The line continues up through the tug boat’s smoking funnel and fits into a chorus of vertical lines that make up the Lower Manhattan skyline. The top right hand of the picture shows the dome of the Singer Building (demolished in 1967) and the famous Brooklyn Bridge jutting up just above the main ship’s funnel.
Who are the men in the scene? Shipping logistics of the time required a lot of manual labour, and the figures are immigrant men being selected for work that day. There are, however, winners and losers. On the left a figure stands in the cold shadow, having been informed that he is surplus to requirements for the day. Stevedores were generally treated poorly in society and Bellows was highly aware of their plight. The painting was a response to the luxury liners that were arriving in New York at the time, including RMS Titanic which, of course, never did arrive.
Much of George Bellows’ painting style, like Spanish artist Joaquin Sorolla, could be considered anachronistic. He wasn’t necessarily pushing the boundaries of colour and space and he remained essentially a realist painter, with elements of caricature in his figures. However, his work was far from sentimental and he was politically motivated in his themes. Unlike his American contemporaries, however, he placed creativity and expression over the political messaging and he became something of a dissident within his group.
Men of the Docks is not just a great and edifying painting, it is also a piece of real time and place in history.