The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 20, 2025
Reducing Exercises
1916
(American, 1882–1925)
Image: 44.5 x 42.1 cm (17 1/2 x 16 9/16 in.)
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1937.478
Catalogue raisonné: Mason 22
Location: Not on view
Description
Fueled by the advertising industry and the increasing popularity of movies, the ideal standard for women’s bodies began to evolve during the early 20th century, fostering a preference for more curvaceous profiles with thinner waists. Bellows’s Reducing Exercises presents a woman dutifully engaged in changing her physique while her male companion sleeps. When he first exhibited the print, the artist provided an accompanying quip: “Gymnastics before retiring are supposed to reduce the flesh. The husband is contented with his figure.”- Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14-September 18, 2016).The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH (05/14/2016-09/18/2016): “Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports”Humor in Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 13-October 28, 1934).
- {{cite web|title=Reducing Exercises|url=false|author=George Bellows|year=1916|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.478