George Wesley Bellows - A Morning Snow, Hudson River [1910]

George Wesley Bellows - A Morning Snow, Hudson River [1910], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Assured, slashing strokes of a heavily loaded brush capture the effects of morning light reflected from freshly fallen snow. This view of the Hudson River and New Jersey from Manhattan's Upper West Side - showing a man shovelling snow, people going to work, boats plying the river, and smoke and steam interrupting the still, crisp atmosphere transmits a sense of the city's awakening energies. The content signals the artist's affinity for the art of the New York Realists, especially Robert Henri, yet more than many of his contemporaries. Bellows constructed his composition to exploit its abstract potential: the elevated vantage point flattens the pictorial space, which is then ordered by a subtle system of horizontal and vertical elements.

[Oil on canvas, 114.62 cm x 160.66 cm]