The National Gallery of London has purchased their first piece of American art in the form of a painting by George Bellows.
Men of the Docks , made in 1912, depicts a group of men standing at the Brooklyn docks, in front of a large ship. BBC News reports that the National Gallery purchased the painting for US $25.5 million from the Randolph College in Virginia, where it hung for nearly a hundred years before being taken down in 2007. The purchase marks the beginning of a partnership between the National Gallery and Randolph College. BBC News also reports Randolph College President Bradley W. Bateman as saying, "We feel proud that an international audience will now become more aware of Randolph and our long stewardship of Men of the Docks."
The Art Newspaper reports that though a group of students tried to save the work, which is part of a series by Bellows, from being moved across the Atlantic ocean, the university decided to sell it to make money and partnerships for the school.
George Bellows died at the age of 42 from appendicitis, 13 years after completing Men of the Docks
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
