The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 24, 2025
The Drunk
1924
(American, 1882–1925)
Platemark: 39.7 x 33 cm (15 5/8 x 13 in.); Sheet: 57.7 x 44 cm (22 11/16 x 17 5/16 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1936.579
Catalogue raisonné: Mason 169b
Location: Not on view
Description
George Bellows made this lithograph as an illustration for an article in support of Prohibition published in Good Housekeeping by American suffragist Mabel Potter Daggett. Supporters of Prohibition, which had gone into effect in 1920, believed that alcohol was responsible for many societal problems, including physical violence. In this distressing image, a drunken father confronts his wife with a fist, while a daughter steps in to help and children cower in the corner. Bellows’s strong triangular composition reveals his fascination with an artistic theory called “dynamic symmetry,” in which geometry is used to promote continuity, flow, and balance.- The George Wesley Bellows Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 16-March 22, 1926).
- {{cite web|title=The Drunk|url=false|author=George Bellows|year=1924|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1936.579