A Stag at Sharkey’s
Artist: George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)
Date: 1917
Dimensions:
image: 19 x 24 1/8 in. (48.3 x 61.3 cm)
sheet: 21 3/8 x 26 3/8 in. (54.3 x 67 cm)
Medium: Lithograph
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Lay American Art Fund
Object number: 1986.104
Label Text:Boxing as a sport has been around for thousands of years, with early depictions in ancient Egyptian reliefs and Minoan wall paintings. It was a common spectator sport in ancient Rome until abolished in 393 CE due to its excessive brutality. It later emerged as a sport in 16th-century England. Throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, boxing bouts were motivated by money, as the fighters competed for prize money and spectators bet on the result. The modern Olympic movement revived interest in amateur sports, and amateur boxing—one of the original competitions of the ancient Olympics—once again became an Olympic sport in 1908.
This famous print depicts a “stag”—an illegal prizefight for an all-male audience in the cellar of a saloon run by retired heavyweight boxer Tom Sharkey on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Fights were not legal in New York City until 1920 with the founding of the New York State Athletic Commission.
Based on his oil painting of 1909 (see below), Bellows’ lithograph captures the raw, gritty intensity of the semi-legal prize fights (“stags”) sponsored by New York sports clubs. Public boxing was illegal in New York in 1909, though private fights were permitted. To get around the law, Sharkey’s bar charged membership fees. The Frawley Act permitting boxing in New York went into effect in 1911, but was repealed in 1917 after a boxer’s death in the ring. The prohibition of the violent sport ensured a renewed interest in the illicit fights of the preceding decade and Bellows capitalized on the underground appeal of this subject.
Bellows changed some elements in the course of translating the painting into a print. He eliminated the ropes on the near side of the ring to create a clearer image and enhanced the triangular composition and the sculptural quality of the boxers. The spectators in the foreground now turn to each other and comment on the fight, highlighting the social nature of the event.
This famous print depicts a “stag”—an illegal prizefight for an all-male audience in the cellar of a saloon run by retired heavyweight boxer Tom Sharkey on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Fights were not legal in New York City until 1920 with the founding of the New York State Athletic Commission.
Based on his oil painting of 1909 (see below), Bellows’ lithograph captures the raw, gritty intensity of the semi-legal prize fights (“stags”) sponsored by New York sports clubs. Public boxing was illegal in New York in 1909, though private fights were permitted. To get around the law, Sharkey’s bar charged membership fees. The Frawley Act permitting boxing in New York went into effect in 1911, but was repealed in 1917 after a boxer’s death in the ring. The prohibition of the violent sport ensured a renewed interest in the illicit fights of the preceding decade and Bellows capitalized on the underground appeal of this subject.
Bellows changed some elements in the course of translating the painting into a print. He eliminated the ropes on the near side of the ring to create a clearer image and enhanced the triangular composition and the sculptural quality of the boxers. The spectators in the foreground now turn to each other and comment on the fight, highlighting the social nature of the event.
Not on view
In Collection(s)