Benediction in Georgia

Bellows grew up in a highly religious home and produced a series of prints on the impact of religion that he exhibited in 1918 as "Studies in Belief." He intended the scene of a white minister towering over black convicts to be a study in hypocrisy, making it one of his most political prints. The image also appeared as an illustration in the Socialist magazine The Masses, which was critical of racial discrimination and the role of evangelical religion in the United States.