The splendidly sturdy Miss Bentham, a painting by the American George Bellows which was once owned by Andy Warhol, has become the first nude acquired by the renowned collection of the Barber Institute in Birmingham, where she joins works by Botticelli, Rubens, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Picasso.
It is only the second work by the painter, regarded as one of the greatest of early 20th-century American artists and much better known for his gritty urban and brutally realistic boxing scenes than for naked ladies, to enter a British collection.
Nicola Kalinsky, director of the Barber, said: “This is a thrilling departure for the Barber Institute and our first major purchase for some years. It fits in extremely well with the strengths of our gallery as a historical collection, but it takes us into new areas too. The painting is very American and very much of its time, strengthening and expanding our representation of early 20th-century art.”
Bellows never left the US before he died of appendicitis aged 42, but Kalinsky said his work showed he was very aware of the European artists. Many he admired are represented in the Barber collection, including Edouard Manet and Goya, and Miss Bentham will hang in the gallery beside a portrait by Manet.
Bellows, born in Ohio, spent most of his short working life in New York, where he died in 1925. He was best known as a member of the Ashcan painters of contemporary urban life, though he also carved out a reputation as a society portraitist.
His work has long been coveted by American collectors like Warhol, who bought Miss Bentham in 1985 and kept it until his death. However, he was much less known in Europe until his reputation was boosted by several major exhibitions including the first in the UK, at the Royal Academy in London in 2013, where one of the stars was Stag at Sharkey’s, his 1909 painting of two sinewy boxers locked in combat.
Miss Bentham – Bellows’ title, evidently the name of the model – was bought outright for the collection by the Henry Barber Trust, whose chairman, Hugh Carslake, said: “Our founder, Lady Barber, stated that the quality of the works in our collection should be “of exceptional and outstanding merit” and emulate that of the works in the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection, so this is a particularly apposite addition.”
She was painted in 1906, the year Bellows began to exhibit as a professional artist. It was his first nude, and he never sold the imposing 6x3ft canvas. It was first sold by his widow, along with the contents of his studio.
A year ago, his 1912 Men of the Docks, a grimy view of the Brooklyn docks, the East River and a smoggy Manhattan skyline in the background, became the first major American painting bought by the National Gallery in London.
Miss Bentham goes on display at the Barber from Tuesday and will be the centrepiece of an exhibition next year including major loans from Britain and the US.
