No artist's oeuvre would be complete without a Crucifixion and Bellows' composition
here is strongly reminiscent of the crucifixions by great masters of Spanish painting.
The figures to the right are very similar to those found in the works of the great
Spanish master, El Greco. The compelling diagonal movement in the piece is quite
unusual, however. The figures at the far left and far right serve as parenthetical
opening and closing elements of the painting. The figures on the right looking at the
figure of Christ on the cross serve to draw the viewer into the composition, and the
sorrowful figures departing at the far right add an element of closure to the
sorrowful scene.
Buy the catalogue An American Pulse: The
Lithographs of George Wesley Bellows.
