Men of the Docks: Saul Bellows

Small exhibition at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham bringing together two pictures by Saul Bellows.

 
I was slightly disappointed as I’d misread the advert for this and thought it was a full blown Bellows exhibition but it was still nice to see Men of the Docks again, on loan from the National Gallery. It was good to see it in isolation and to get a chance to look at the detail in it. Usually at the National Gallery it is being mugged by the colour of the Impressionists around it.
 
I’d never noticed the heavy shadow in the picture before which makes you look outside the picture for the structure which might be casting it but no it’s in the picture. I love the use of white in the painting from the surface of the water, to the top desks of the ship and even picked up in the horses.
 
The picture was shown with the gallery’s own "Nude, Miss Bentham", a dark, rather Sickert like full length life study heavily influenced by Manet. These are the only two Bellows pictures in UK public galleries so it was nice to see them hanging together and I got over my disappointment.

Closes on 9 September 2018



 

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