George Wesley Bellows, “Man on His Back, Nude”, 1916, San Diego Museum of Art

This is a very rare, rich proof impression printed in a black/ purple ink. The edition consists of only 19 prints. It is one of only two lithographs by George Wesley Bellows in which he depicted male nudes.

An American painter, lithographer and illustrator, George Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1882. He attended Ohio State University from 1901-1904, but moved to New York before graduating to study at the New York School of Art under Robert Henri.

In 1911, Bellows began contributing pictures to the radical journal “The Masses”, which gave him the opportunity to work with like-minded artists such as Stuart Davis, Boardman Robinson and John Sloan. He produced several anti- war drawings during the time of the First World War and completed a series of paintings and lithographs concerning the war.

Bellows moved to the Chicago Art Institute in 1919 and illustrated novels, including several by H.G. Wells. While in New York in 1925, an attack of appendicitis caused his death.