The Bersaglieri

1918

George Luks

Painter, American, 1866 - 1933

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Shortly after the United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, a series of Liberty Loan drives were organized in major American cities to encourage citizens to help the federal government defray its wartime expenses by purchasing bonds. In New York, elaborate parades were held on the city’s main thoroughfare, Fifth Avenue, which was specially decorated with flags of the Allied forces. Like many American artists, George Luks contributed to the war effort by representing some of these festive occasions.

The Bersaglieri shows a regiment of Italian sharpshooters who had been sent to the United States in 1918 to stimulate interest in the fourth Liberty Loan drive. Introduced into the Sardinian army in 1849, they had served heroically in numerous military engagements and were noted for their endurance and ability to march at a speed of four miles an hour. When Italy entered World War I in 1915, 12 regiments of Bersaglieri were in the regular army, and 20 battalions in the mobile militia. On Columbus Day, October 12, 1918, they marched at the head of a procession led by President Woodrow Wilson from East 72nd Street down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square. Luks’s painting successfully conveys the soldiers’ martial prowess, the din of the crowd, and a sense of the excitement generated by the event.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Avalon Foundation

  • Dimensions

    overall: 101.9 x 151.5 cm (40 1/8 x 59 5/8 in.)
    framed: 119.1 x 169.6 x 7 cm (46 7/8 x 66 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1950.5.1

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: The Bersaglieri, 1918

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; purchased by Arthur F. Egner, South Orange, New Jersey, by 1934;[1] (his estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 4 May 1945, no. 116). (Knoedler and Co., New York), by 1947;[2] purchased 16 May 1950 by NGA.
[1] The painting was lent by Enger to the 1934 exhibition The Work of George Benjamin Luks at the Newark Museum.
[2] The painting was lent by Knoedler to the 1947 exhibition Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition: Paintings by American Artists 1896-1930 at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1934

  • The Works of Benjamin Luks, Newark Museum, New Jersey, 1934-1935, no. 36.

1946

  • American Painting, Person Hall Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1946, no. 27.

1947

  • Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition: Paintings by American Artists 1896-1930, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, 1947, no. 23.

1949

  • The Turn of the Century: American Artists 1890-1920, Des Moines Art Center, 1949, unnumbered catalogue.

1954

  • Extended loan for use by Blair-Lee House, Washington, D.C., 1954-1956.

1973

  • George Luks: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings Dating from 1889 to 1931, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, April-May 1973, no. 47, repro.

  • The City in American Painting, Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, January-March 1973, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1988

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Frank Carlucci, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989.

1991

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Lynn Martin, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., 1991-1993.

1993

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Robert Reich, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C., 1993-1995.

2001

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador William Stamps Farish III, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 2001-2002.

Bibliography

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 80, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 196, repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 52, color repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 207, color repro. 219.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 162, no. 58, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 229, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: George Luks

Wikidata ID

Q20192161

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