Most fun for the adults: Admiring the sketches he drew first and then seeing the final painting.

Most fun for the kids: N/A

Best ages for this attraction: 16+

Price per tickets: Free, $5 suggested donation

Leaving for the Country: George Bellows at Woodstock is on display at the Terra Museum of American Art from October 4, 2003 through January 11, 2004. Forty-five paintings and drawings by Bellows and 20 works of art by fellow Woodstock artists place into context Bellow's late masterworks and suggest the rich artistic exchange within this rural colony.

I had never heard about George Bellows (1882-1925) before, but the exhibit attracted me because the works highlighted were painted in Woodstock, New York in the early 1920s. I have not been to Woodstock, New York, but I know it is in the country and I assumed the paintings would be interesting.
Often better known for his gritty urban scenes, this is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Bellows's years in Woodstock, a period of tremendous growth and development that changed his palette and style significantly. During these years Bellows produced some of his best work, including Elinor, Jean and Anna, which has secured its place within the canon of American masterpieces. This exhibition includes more than 65 works of art, including paintings, drawings, and lithographs created by George Bellows and his contemporaries while at Woodstock, New York, between the years of 1920 and 1924.

George Bellows was among the most famous artists of his generation and was celebrated for his paintings of live boxing events such as the famous painting A Stag at Sharkey's. This exhibition illustrates the period from 1920 to 1924,when Bellows found the friendly summer retreat in Woodstock, New York a productive site to explore the relationship of color and composition that made his late work innovative. While living in this colony, Bellows painted bold landscapes and remarkable portraits of family and friends.

With his family, Bellows spent several months each year in Woodstock where he was inspired by the same mountains, lakes, and fields that had drawn early American landscape painters such as Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand. While living and painting in the lively artistic community, Bellows was able to paint portraits of his family at the center of Woodstock's activities. The Maverick Festival and an annual bohemian theatrical romp gave Bellows the opportunity to indulge his love of costume by having several of his subjects dress up in different outfits.

The Woodstock artists' community experienced phenomenal growth during the time that Bellows was living there, with artists comprising 20 to 25 percent of the population during the summer. The paintings, drawings,and lithographs executed by Bellows during these years are the focus of the exhibition, yet works by his Woodstock contemporaries Henry Lee McFee, Eugene Speicher, Andrew Dasburg, and Bellows's former teacher Robert Henri are also represented in this exhibition.

Many of the works in this traveling exhibition are lent generously by institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.