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Details / Information for Polo Sketch

Polo Sketch

1921

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
Culture
America
Medium
lithograph
Measurements
Image: 21 x 26.3 cm (8 1/4 x 10 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1936.640
Catalogue raisonné
Mason 87
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

After witnessing his first polo match, Bellows described his fascination in a letter to his former English professor at Ohio State University: “I’ve been making studies of the wealthy game polo played by the ultra rich. And let me say these ultra rich have nerve tucked under their vest pocket. It’s an Aladdin’s lamp sort of game. You wish to be a hundred yards to your left, you kick your heels—and there you are. . . . The players are nice looking, moral looking. The horses are beautiful. I believe they brush their teeth and bathe them in goat’s milk. It is a great subject to draw.
A horizontally oriented lithograph in black ink depicts a chaotic polo match. In the center, two muscular horses collide while galloping right, a rider on the dark horse raising a mallet high. To the left, a man and woman stand as spectators with their backs turned. Heavy shading and thick, dark lines define the figures. Hazy hills and a clouded sky stretch beneath a dark, charcoal-textured atmosphere in the distance.

Polo Sketch

1921

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
America

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