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Smith
Celebrates Acquisition of Celebrated Masterwork
 "Pennsylvania
Excavation" by George Wesley Bellows. Click on image
for larger view. |
NORTHAMPTON,
Mass. – Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA)
is the recipient of one of the most celebrated works by a
preeminent leader of the Ashcan School of American realist
painting.
“Pennsylvania Excavation” (1907), a painting that launched the career of New
York realist painter George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925), has
been given to the museum by 1960 Smith graduate Mary Gordon Roberts in honor
of the 50th reunion of her graduating class. The acclaimed landscape depicts
the site preparation for the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s
landmark station in midtown Manhattan, a turning point in New York’s urban
and civic development. The painting will be on view at SCMA beginning April
13.
Bellows, who is perhaps best
known for his boxing pictures, including “Stag
at Sharkey’s” (1909), is
celebrated for his gritty, muscular depictions of urban environments,
specifically of working-class New Yorkers, their neighborhoods and activities.
Last exhibited publicly in the
late 1990s, “Pennsylvania Excavation” is one
of four New York paintings Bellows produced early in his
career that document the construction of Penn Station, the
hub of a monumentally ambitious project that would transform
national transportation and commerce. Bellows’ depiction
of the construction site—described by a critic in the New
York Sun as a “great
gaping wound in the dirty earth”—earned the artist early
critical acclaim for capturing the raw vitality of the city’s
growth. Related works are in the collections of the Brooklyn
Museum (“Pennsylvania Station Excavation,” 1907-09), the
National Gallery of Art (“Blue Morning,” 1909), and the Crystal
Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. (“Excavation
at Night,” 1908).
“We are deeply honored by this gift and by the sustained commitment that Mary
and her family have shown to Smith’s educational mission,” said
Smith President Carol T. Christ. “Direct encounters with
original masterworks are integral to the study and practice
of art, and Smith is proud to be the place where this remarkable
painting will have a lasting legacy through its availability
to students, scholars and the public.”
Jessica Nicoll, director and
chief curator of the college’s
art museum, noted that the gift addresses an ambitious collecting
priority for the museum that “we
could only have realized through a gift.” Acquiring the Bellows,
she said, “has
realized a dream for us in the context of our commitment
to an outstanding American collection.”
Established in 1879 as a contemporary
American collection, Smith College Museum of Art is widely
acknowledged as having one of the most important art collections
at an American liberal arts college. Its 21,000 works include
significant paintings by American masters such as John Singleton
Copley, John Peto, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Childe
Hassam, Charles Sheeler, Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper,
as well as works by Robert Henri, Bellows’ teacher and mentor at
the New York School of Art. More than 40,000 people visit
the Museum every year.
Mary Gordon Roberts majored
in history at Smith and earned a master’s degree
in international affairs from Stanford and an MBA from New
York University. She had a long career as a financial analyst
and investment banker and was a competitive long-distance
runner. In 1985, the college awarded her a Smith Medal, its
highest alumnae honor, in recognition of her accomplishments.
The Gordon family has supported
Smith for many years, across a number of areas, notably in
athletics. Albert H. Gordon, Mrs. Roberts’ father, served
for a decade on the college’s
board of trustees. Mary Gordon Roberts has been an active
leader in the alumnae association and chaired the college’s
investment committee.
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