George Bellows (1882–1925)
Billy Sunday, 1923
Lithograph on paper, 15 ¾ x 22 inches
Gift of the Reverend Richard L. Hillstrom
This lithograph, perhaps the best known of all the artist’s many prints, is based on an earlier drawing Bellows made for the periodical Metropolitan Magazine, part of its coverage of the 1915 Philadelphia crusade by the forceful and charismatic evangelist Billy Sunday (1862–1935), a conservative proselytizer known for his ability to whip his followers into an emotional, religious fervor. Bellows was accompanied to Sunday’s revival by John Reed (1887 1920), the socialist journalist who was reporting for the magazine. The artist disliked Sunday deeply and thought him a reactionary and the “worst thing that ever happened to America.” Despite his disdain, Bellows seems to have been captivated by Sunday’s energy as he virtually leaps into his audience. Like Sunday, Bellows was an athlete (both men played baseball professionally), and the energetic pose in this print seems related to the forms of fighting boxers in an earlier series of paintings and prints done by Bellows on that subject, some his best known works.
Text from the catalogue for the exhibition The Eight, The Ashcan School, and The American Scene in the Hillstrom Collection, presented in the Hillstrom Museum of Art February 25 through April 21, 2013.