George Bellows was born in Columbus, Ohio, of old New England stock. His father wanted him to be a banker; his mother, a bishop; his college, a professional baseball player. However, he decided on painting and, in 1904, left college to study art in New York. Before he was thirty he had earned a national reputation as an artist.
Bellows became the most popular American artist of his time. He was talented and thoroughly American in his choice of subject matter and his outlook on life. He seemed to find equal enjoyment in depicting prize fights, children, revival meetings, nudes, river fronts, landscapes, and political gatherings. The Sand Cart was painted on a visit to Carmel, California, in 1917 and stands in radical contrast to his dynamic scenes of New York City’s industrial and architectural transformation.
