Benediction in Georgia

Maker George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882 - 1925)

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1916

Mediumlithograph

Dimensionsimage: 15 3/4 x 19 7/8 in. (40 x 50.5 cm.) sheet: 20 3/4 x 26 1/2 in. (52.7 x 67.3 cm.)

DescriptionMan in a suit stands with his arms outstretched in front of a large group of prisoners chained at the ankles

SignedSigned in lower right of image in crayon: Geo. Bellows Signed in lower right of recto in graphite: Geo. Bellows / J.B.B.

InscribedSigned in lower right of image in crayon: Geo. Bellows Signed in lower right of recto in graphite: Geo. Bellows / J.B.B. Inscribed in lower left of recto in graphite: No 61 [erased] X

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Hannah S. Kully

Status

Not on view

Label TextBellows grew up in a highly religious home and produced a series of prints on the impact of religion that he exhibited in 1918 as "Studies in Belief." He intended the scene of a white minister towering over black convicts to be a study in hypocrisy, making it one of his most political prints. The image also appeared as an illustration in the Socialist magazine The Masses, which was critical of racial discrimination and the role of evangelical religion in the United States.

Object number2014.30.16