The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2024

Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait

1921
(American, 1882–1925)
Sheet: 29.7 x 22.6 cm (11 11/16 x 8 7/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Mason 114
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

George Bellows attended the Ohio State University and the year that this self-portrait was made marked the school's only loss in football to another team from the state of Ohio.

Description

Bellows’s Self-Portrait wittily presents himself in the very act of creating it. Reflected in a scallop-framed mirror, the artist intently studies his likeness while recording it on the thick lithographic stone that would be prepared and inked to make this print. He sports the bow tie often worn during this period of his career, and a cigarette dangles from his free hand. Bellows frequently attempted to break his smoking habit, writing on one occasion to a friend, “. . . all winter I have been making evasive gestures at cigarettes usually with the left hand and lighting them with the right.”
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 190 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 190 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 236 archive.org
  • Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14-September 18, 2016).
    George Bellows Prints: Centennial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7-October 31, 1982).
    Cleveland Museum of Art (05/14/2016-09/18/2016); Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports.
    The George Wesley Bellows Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 16-March 22, 1926).
  • {{cite web|title=Self-Portrait|url=false|author=George Bellows|year=1921|access-date=22 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1935.279