Pennsylvania Station Excavation
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Between 1907 and 1909, George Wesley Bellows completed a series of four canvases devoted to the excavation of Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan. In this version, laborers are dwarfed by the gaping pit they have created as they tear down the old New York in order to build it anew. The dark palette and vigorous brushwork, coupled with the chill winter atmosphere and billowing plumes of steam and smoke, lend additional drama to the scene. The painting has an infernal quality, suggesting the artist’s ambivalence about the rapid transformation of New York in the early twentieth century. The grand railroad terminal that would rise from this excavation was eventually demolished in 1963.
Caption
George Wesley Bellows American, 1882–1925. Pennsylvania Station Excavation, ca. 1907–1908. Oil on canvas, 31 3/16 x 38 1/4 in. (79.2 x 97.1 cm) frame: 36 1/4 x 43 3/4 x 3 in. (92 x 111.1 x 7.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 67.205.1. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.205.1_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Pennsylvania Station Excavation
Date
ca. 1907–1908
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
31 3/16 x 38 1/4 in. (79.2 x 97.1 cm) frame: 36 1/4 x 43 3/4 x 3 in. (92 x 111.1 x 7.6 cm)
Signatures
Unsigned
Credit Line
A. Augustus Healy Fund
Accession Number
67.205.1
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Can you tell me more about this artist?
George Bellows was born in Ohio and spent his artistic career in New York. He was important member of the Ashcan School, a group of artists who worked in a realist style and took urban life as their central subject matter.Bellows became famous for his depictions of boxing matches and scenes of New York tenement life. His art touched upon much of the complex social, political, and cultural issues of his time (early 1900s). His painting style was also intentionally rough and expressive which you can definitely see here in this work.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at