id: 116925
accession number: 1937.478
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1937.478
updated: 2023-03-07 15:13:22.504000
Reducing Exercises, 1916. George Bellows (American, 1882–1925). Lithograph; image: 44.5 x 42.1 cm (17 1/2 x 16 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1937.478
title: Reducing Exercises
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1916
creation date earliest: 1916
creation date latest: 1916
current location:
creditline: Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.
copyright:
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: lithograph
department: Prints
collection: PR - Lithograph
type: Print
find spot:
catalogue raisonne: Mason 22
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CREATORS
* George Bellows (American, 1882–1925) - artist
An accomplished athlete, George Bellows (1882–1925) was an especially appropriate artist to address the subject of sports. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, he played baseball and basketball as a youth, developing sufficient ability to letter in both at Ohio State University. According to some accounts, scouts for the Cincinnati Reds took notice of his shortstop talents. However, Bellows’s first love, art, ultimately intervened, and after his junior year he relocated to New York to study painting. In a remarkably short period he became the leading artist of his generation, a reputation fueled through boxing subjects such as Stag at Sharkey’s. In his later years he developed recreational passions for tennis and billiards, which he routinely played with friends. Bellows’s life was cut short at the age of 42, due to complications after his appendix ruptured.
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measurements: Image: 44.5 x 42.1 cm (17 1/2 x 16 9/16 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Humor in Prints
opening date: 1934-09-13T04:00:00
Humor in Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 13-October 28, 1934).
title: Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports
opening date: 2016-05-14T00:00:00
Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 14-September 18, 2016).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH (05/14/2016-09/18/2016): “Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports”
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PROVENANCE
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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.”
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