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George Bellows (American, 1882–1925). Tennis Tournament. 1920. Oil on canvas. Collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon. Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Bellows is famous for being both an athlete and an artist. He excelled in baseball and basketball and nearly joined the Cincinnati Reds before devoting his life to art. He used broad strokes and a strong, mathematical composition to capture motion and muscle power, his subjects ranging from boxers—fists bloodied and clenched in dark, sweaty sporting clubs—to polo players lyrically swinging on liquid green fields. Here, in the light and shadows thrown across a grassy court, a tennis player raises his racquet, body tensed forever for the final volley. If you look closely, you will see that several figures are unfinished: it appears that once Bellows achieved what he wanted, he simply stopped work.