The Lone Tenement 1909

George Bellows made this painting, *The Lone Tenement*, with visible brushstrokes, and a restrained color palette. I can almost feel Bellows wrestling with the canvas. Painting outside, perhaps? Trying to get down the essence of the city's grit and energy. The paint is thick, applied with these broad, confident strokes – like he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. I wonder if he was thinking about the Ashcan School, those other painters who were also capturing the real, unvarnished side of urban life. He might have felt a kinship, a shared purpose in showing the world as it is, not just how we wish it to be. Look how that lone tenement rises up, almost defiant against the muted sky. There’s a beautiful tension between the way Bellows captures its solidity and the fluid, almost dreamlike quality of the surrounding landscape. I wonder if Bellows was aware of how his work would echo through time.