Portrait Of A Boy 1921

George Bellows made this portrait of a boy, and just looking at the brushwork you know he was up close and personal with his subject. The kid is sitting there, maybe a little bored, and Bellows is working fast, trying to capture that fleeting moment of youth. I can see the thick paint, especially in the way he sculpts the light on the boy's face. It's almost like Bellows is wrestling with the paint, trying to pin down something essential about this kid. And it’s not just about likeness, right? It's about mood and feeling. Maybe Bellows was thinking about his own childhood, or the hopes he had for the future. Painting always opens up a dialogue between what we see and how we feel, across time. Bellows is talking to us, and we're talking back, in our own way.