Rain on the River

Authors

RISD Museum
Fritz Drury, Rhode Island School of DesignFollow

Files

Description

George Bellows was critically acclaimed for the frank, even brutal manner of the urban landscapes he painted in the early years of the twentieth century. His view from a rockly ledge above Riverside Park surveys a freight train making its way along the New York Central’s famous Water Level Route. The string of railcars echoes the rushing diagonal that marks the near bank of the Hudson River. Aggressive brushstrokes indicate reflective surfaces that are animated by graphic observations: a lone pedestrian scurries acros a rain-slicked path, and a horse-drawn cart awaits a delivery of scavenged coal. Bellows called Rain on the River “one of my most beautiful things” in a letter he wrote to RISD president Eliza Radeke during 1915, the year the painting was acquired for the Museum’s collection. 1908

Publication Date

1-28-2014

Publisher

RISD Museum

City

Providence, Rhode Island

Keywords

Rhode Island School of Design Museum; landscape painting; oil painting; Hudson River; trains; railcars; New York Central; Water Level Route; 20th Century

Disciplines

Painting

Recommended Citation

RISD Museum and Drury, Fritz, "Rain on the River" (2014). Channel. 3.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_channel/3