Forty-two Kids
1907
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 106.7 × 153 cm (42 × 60 1/4 in.) framed: 124.1 × 170 × 7.3 cm (48 7/8 × 66 15/16 × 2 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund)
Accession Number
2014.79.2
Art Historical Context
Step into the boisterous world of early 20th-century New York with George Bellows' *Forty-two Kids* (1907), an oil on canvas masterpiece measuring 106.7 × 153 cm. Painted when Bellows was just25, this vibrant work captures a chaotic summer scene of rowdy boys—exactly 42 in number—frolicking on a rickety pier along the East River. Their daring dives, playful scuffles, and unbridled energy burst forth in a symphony of splashes and shouts, embodying the raw vitality of urban street life. As a key figure in the Ashcan School, Bellows rejected polished academic art for gritty realism, focusing on ...
About the Artist
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was born on August 12, 1882, in Columbus, Ohio, the only child of building contractor George Bellows Sr. and Anna Smith Bellows, with an older half-sister, Laura. A talented athlete who excelled in baseball and basketball at Ohio State University from 1901 to 1904, Bellows illustrated for the school yearbook before rejecting a professional baseball contract to pursue art. In ...