George Wesley Bellows (1882 – 1925) was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. In addition to painting, Bellows made significant contributions to lithography, helping to expand the use of the medium as a fine art in the U.S. Bellows also illustrated numerous books in his later career, including several by H.G. Wells. Bellows taught at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1919. In 1920, he began to spend nearly half of each year in Woodstock, New York, where he built a home for his family. He died on January 8, 1925 in New York City, of peritonitis, after failing to tend to a ruptured appendix. He was survived by his wife, Emma Story Bellows (married 1910), and daughters Anne and Jean. Bellows is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.