An American

At the Rehn Galleries, Manhattan, were exhibited recent paintings by George Bellows, whose Crucifixion (depicting a gaunt, muscular, cumbrous Christ) precipitated violent discussion a month ago (TIME, Jan. 14).

Several large oil portraits, mostly of the artist's family, are unusual for their direct and simple handling of subject and color. Among them is a portrait of his wife and young daughters, entitled Emma and Her Children, which was a prize winner at the recent Corcoran exhibition in Washington (TIME, Dec. 31).

But it is not in the field of portraiture that Bellows' greatest talent is found. His oil painting, Introducing John L. Sullivan, clearly shows that he is at his best when treating his favorite subject--the boxing ring. This same subject is even more strikingly handled in his lithographs; the picture Firpo Knocks Out Dempsey is most vivid, both in the drawing of the naked, perspiring bodies of the fighters and in the faces and poses of the spectators and ring officials caught in a moment of suspense.

George Bellows, native of Columbus, O., began his studies at the Chicago Art Institute, continued them in New York under Robert Henri. Bellows is a successful and prominent member of the Woodstock colony (TIME, Aug. 6). It is his boast that he has never left the U. S., that his work is entirely free from foreign influence. It is this very provincialism which makes him one of the most Important American artists.