A Stag at Sharkey's

Maker George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882 - 1925)

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1917

Mediumlithograph on Chinese paper

Dimensions18 3/4 x 23 3/4 in. (47.6 x 60.3 cm.)

SignedSigned in lower right: Geo Bellows

InscribedInscribed in lower center: A Stag at Sharkey's Inscribed in lower left: No. 82 Signed in lower right: Geo Bellows

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Frances and Sidney Brody Charitable Fund, Inc., Kelvin Davis, Stan and Judith Farrar, Paul and Heather Haaga, Margery and Maurice Katz, Russel and Hannah Kully, Margaret Richards, the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, Warren and Alyce Williamson, and Robert and Deborah Wycoff.

Status

Not on view

Label TextA Stag at Sharkey's, based on a painting from 1909 (Cleveland Museum of Art), focuses on the brutality of boxing performed in front of an exclusively male, working-class crowd. The ferocity of the combatants is reinforced by bloodthirsty expressions on the faces in the audience. To increase the drama, Bellows brought the viewer close to the action inside the ring by barely suggesting ropes in the foreground, almost eliminating the sense of enclosure.

When he created the painting, prizefighting was illegal in New York, but it thrived underground in seedy bars like Tom Sharkey's Athletic Club, which Bellows visited to observe the sport.

Object number2001.12