TEACHERS NOTES 2018–19

All images in this document are details of , Men of the Docks, 1912 Social realism and Painting style TEACHERS the Ashcan painters and composition Bellows was one of a number of Bellows’s style was different to many NOTES artists to be trained in New York by established American painters of the Robert Henri. Henri had lived and time. It was rawer, rougher, and less 2018–19 painted in Paris and encouraged refined, constructed from a variety his students to walk the streets of brush marks. On the ice and the and find subjects for their art in figures in the foreground the paint ordinary, everyday scenes. has been applied thickly (he was known to use a palette knife to Bellows and his fellow artists did add paint as well as a brush). The just that, depicting the reality of buildings in the background have the city (energetic, harsh, exciting, been constructed with thinner paint, and threatening) with a rawness that helping to create a sense of distance made the scenes appear immediate in the smoky, hazy sunlight. and honest. The paintings were not highly finished, the paint often applied thickly in quick, lively strokes. These artists were later referred to as the Ashcan painters. They were not afraid to offend contemporary taste, capturing sides of modern life some might have wanted to ignore. In doing so they gave voices to people who were rarely heard, encouraging viewers to emotionally invest in their stories, to empathise, and to acknowledge them. The of America in the early 20th century stood on the edge of unimaginable social and technological change. The next 60 years would see world wars, Look closely at the figures of the men stock market crashes, the age of and you can see their faces have been made from just a few strokes of thick automobiles, aeroplanes, and men paint. They are not finely detailed walking on the moon. In 1912 the but their body language shows their country, still relatively young at 135 expressions: hunched shoulders, years old, was taking great strides hands in pockets, an anxious glance towards this new era while the over a shoulder. rest of the world took notice. Bellows has used bright colours sparingly: the rusty red of the ship, Whether fleeing persecution or the bright blue of funnel, the deep enticed by the promise of a better blue of the worker’s sweater. Look life, immigrants in their thousands again at the ice: it is not just white flocked to cities like New York but also a combination of blues seeking accommodation and and greys, the thickness and size of work. George Bellows was part of the brushstrokes creating a sense a generation of artists documenting of perspective as they get smaller as they get further away. There is this change with their painting, no barrier in the foreground; we breaking from tradition to capture are placed in the painting with the the competing realities of modern workers. The allure of the city in urban life - the excitement, the distance is kept away from us, the energy, and the hardship. separated by a cold, unforgiving expanse of water. The city Ships Workers The main ship in the painting The men here are waiting to be This painting is set in , is a huge steam-powered ocean given work. The man on the left the most populous borough of liner. The blue stripe on the might have been told he will not New York, looking across the funnel lets us know that it was be needed today. His shoulders East River to lower . part of the Liverpool-based are hunched forward against the On the right in the distance is the Lamport & Holt line. cold and his head down, giving Brooklyn Bridge connecting the two us a sense of his rejection. Are boroughs. By the early 19th century In 1912 ships were the only the others looking at him with the United States had become a way to travel overseas. Crossing sympathy, pity, or relief that it’s major urban and industrial power, from Europe to New York not them? The horses are fitted and New York was very much its would take two weeks. The with large harnesses, helping us corporate centre. liner would have had luxury imagine how heavy the loads they accommodation for the rich while pull would be. Like many major cities, the lower class travellers had separate extremely rich rubbed shoulders accommodation further below These workers were known as with the extremely poor. Lower decks, sometimes hundreds longshoremen and they loaded Manhattan in the distance was sleeping in bunkbeds in a large and unloaded cargo. In 1912 home to Wall Street, the city’s communal hold. they commonly earned around financial centre, and also the slum 30 cents an hour, typically taking tenements of the lower east side. Immigrants from across the globe home between $10–$22 a week. While companies competed with would often arrive on liners like Rent for a modest apartment in each other to build the tallest this, those from Europe travelling New York would be around $10 a and most dazzling skyscrapers, first to Britain and then on to the week. There was no guarantee of the immigrants and working class US. This painting was made in the work; they would turn up in the Americans who helped construct same year as the sinking of the morning and hope that there was the city lived in crowded buildings, Titanic. Ships like these were very something for them to do, and often in poor conditions. The river much in the minds of the public, if not they would return home that had brought many of them not only as huge examples of without pay. into the city also brought the human ingenuity and progress, materials for the industries they but also as reminders of the All the figures here are men. worked in. dangers of the open sea. Women were largely expected to perform domestic duties, Ocean liners would also transport although they increasingly cargo besides people, the loading worked in stores and factories. and unloading of which would Physical roles like dock work or be a large job. The small tugboat construction were not deemed alongside the liner would have suitable – is that still the case been used to push or pull large today? In 1912 women were vessels in tight spaces, or pull also unable to vote, but a rise in barges up and down river. Large suffrage movements campaigning ships couldn’t navigate busy ports for women’s rights and equality without these little assistants slowly brought about change. 1904 1910 moved to New married Emma Story York, enrolled NY (they would have 1882 1925 school of art, also two daughters), also born Columbus played baseball started teaching at died suddenly Ohio semi-professionally, the Art Students from illness interested in art League aged 42 Timeline

attended Ohio reputation grew, assisted with the Armory State University, star youngest ever associate Show, introducing athlete, increasingly of National Academy Americans to modern interested in art of Design European artists 1901 1909 1923

Links Discussion points

Other artists in the ’s Journeys collection offer contrasting depiction of What different journeys do people take, some of the things George Bellows did and on which forms of transport? Think about in Men of the Docks: journeys to school, work, going on holiday, or exploring. What would you bring with Ports, docks and waterways you on each journey? How might you feel at Canaletto’s The Stonemason’s Yard; different stages of it? How much do journeys Turner’s Calais Pier cost? Which journeys have you, your family, Industrial change and your class made and why? What is Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire immigration and what are some of the reasons and Rain, Steam, and Speed; for it happening? Do people make the same Monet’s The Gare kind of journeys today as they did in the past? St-Lazare Work Work Moroni’s The Tailor; Which different jobs do people do? What Dou’s Poulterer’s Shop are the jobs done in your school community? Why do people do jobs? Are jobs the same in Winter different countries? What do you need to do a Monet’s Snow Scene at Argenteuil job? Think about training, skills, and clothing. or Lavacourt under Snow; Which jobs no longer exist today, and what Friedrich’s Winter Landscape sort of new jobs might you be doing in the future? Do all jobs pay the same amount? The artist L.S. Lowry also painted scenes from Are there such things as a ‘men’s jobs’ and a everyday life, showing people at rest and ‘women’s job’? Do you have to have a job, work in and around Salford and Manchester. and what happens if you don’t or can’t work? thelowry.com/events/ls-lowry The Museum of Docklands Change museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london- What is a change, and is it big or small? docklands Which sort of things change, and which stay The Merseyside Maritime Museum the same? Which changes have you and your liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/ family experienced? How has your school and M Shed, Bristol local area changed in the last 100 years? bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed What changes might you experience as you grow up? Will they be the same for everyone? The National Gallery, Take One Picture How might things change in the next 100 takeonepicture.org years? Are all changes permanent? Think about which are and which aren’t, and why.

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