About the Artwork
George Bellows was a realist with a technique perfectly adapted to his frank impressions.
An amateur ballplayer, he maintained a life-long interest in sports, and his paintings of polo matches and prize-fight rings are often considered his finest work. The crowds in attendance
at the fights were presented in summary fashion, as they were mere accessories to the main event, but they were not the only crowds Bellows painted. As is evident here, he became singularly expert at conveying the sense of motion of a crowd, in this case a group of elegant New Yorkers enjoying a late afternoon outing in Central Park. In the background is the symbol of the twentieth-century American city: a skyscraper.
A Day in June
1913
George Wesley Bellows
1882-1925
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 36 1/2 × 48 inches (92.7 × 121.9 cm) Framed: 43 3/4 × 56 1/16 × 3 3/8 inches (111.1 × 142.4 × 8.6 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Detroit Museum of Art Purchase, Lizzie Merrill Palmer Fund
17.17
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed, lower left center: Geo. Bellows
Provenance
1913-1917, George Wesley Bellows;1917-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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The Inaugural Exhibition. Exh. cat., Rochester Art Gallery. Rochester, New York, 1913, no. 6.
Ninth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists. Exh. cat., Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. Buffalo, New York, 1914, no. 13.
Paintings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1914, no. 21.
Eighty-Ninth Annual Exhibition. Exh. cat., National Academy of Design. New York, 1914, no. 36.
Exhibition of Paintings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Montross Gallery. New York, 1914, no. 17.
Special Exhibition of Paintings by Mr. George Bellows. Exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati, 1915, no. 9.
Exhibition of Paintings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Art. Detroit, 1915, no. 20. [as Day in June]
Paintings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Museum of History, Science, and Art. Los Angeles, 1915, no. 21.
Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Whitney-Richards Gallery. New York, 1915, no. 2.
Exhibition of Paintings by George Bellows, New York City. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, Massachussets, 1915, no. 18.
Third Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1917, pp. 12-13, no. 4.
112th Annual Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Philadelphia, 1917, no. 273
Burroughs, Clyde H. “Accessions: Painting by George Bellows Acquired.” Bulletin of the DIA 12, 1 (October 1917): pp. 1-2 (ill).
Bellows Memorial Exhibition. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1925, no. 19.
“Twentieth Century Art.” DIA Guide. 1943, p. 30 (ill.).
Paintings and Drawings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1945, no. 21.
George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1946, no. 21.
Twentieth Century American Painting. Exh. cat., University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, 1953, no. 25.
Paintings by George Bellows. Exh. cat., Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts. Columbus, Ohio, 1957, no. 28.
50th Anniversary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Hamilton. Hamilton, Ontario, 1964, no. 1 (ill.).
Morgan, Charles H. George Bellows, Painter of America. New York, 1965, p. 332.
“The Beauty of America in Great American Art.” Country Beautiful. New York, 1965, p. 130 (ill.).
Young, Mahonri Sharp. The Paintings of George Bellows. New York, 1973.
Wilmerding, John, ed. The Genius of American Painting. New York, 1973.
“Collection of Miss Amelia White.” Antiques 114 (November 1978) (ill.).
Detroit Institute of Arts. A Visitor’s Guide. 1995, p. 89 (ill.).
Walker, Pierre A., ed. Henry James on Culture: Collected Essays on Politics and the American Social Scene. London, Nebraska, 1999 (ill.).
Beal, Graham W.J. American Beauty, Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts 1770-1920. London, 2002, pp. 84, 120.
Crane, Michael. Detroit's Annual Exhibition of American Art: The Foundation of a Collection. (2005) www.dia.org/research/online_publications/annual_american_art
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Credit Line for Reproduction
George Wesley Bellows, A Day in June, 1913, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Museum of Art Purchase, Lizzie Merrill Palmer Fund, 17.17.
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