Artwork Page for Tennis

Details / Information for Tennis

Tennis

1920

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
Culture
America
Medium
lithograph
Measurements
Image: 46.7 x 50.7 cm (18 3/8 x 19 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1937.508
Catalogue raisonné
Mason 71
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

During the late 1910s, while summer vacationing with his family in the small town of Middletown, Rhode Island, Bellows took time to attend tennis matches hosted nearby at the Newport Casino, a mecca for high-society locals and visitors. In two resultant lithographs, Tennis and The Tournament, greater emphasis is placed on the fashionable spectators assembled to watch the matches than on the sporting activity itself. Bellows appears to imply that at such elite gatherings, audiences were present not only to see, but to be seen.
A horizontally oriented lithograph in black ink depicts a tennis match. In the foreground, two men in light clothing play; the man on the right reaches upward to strike a ball. Spectators with light skin tone sit in rows behind the court, some holding parasols. More people rest on a grassy slope beneath tall, dark trees. A stone building with an arched entrance stands in the background under a cloudy sky. Sharp contrast creates highlights.

Tennis

1920

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
America

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