A Stag at Sharkey’s

Artist George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)

Printer Ruth Maitland, Los Angeles

Date1917

Dimensionsimage: 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)

MediumLithograph

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineMr. and Mrs. Kenneth Lay American Art Fund

Object number

1986.104

Not on View

Label TextBoxing 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 The Frawley Act permitting boxing in New York went into effect in 1911, but was repealed in 1917 after a boxer’s death in the ring.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.Published ReferencesMason, Lauris, The Lithigraphs of George Bellows, a Catalogue Raisonné, Millwood, New York: 1977, pp. 88-89, cat no. 46 Johnson, Una E. American Prints and Printmakers. Garden City, New York, 1980, p.42. Watrous, James, A Century of American Printmaking 1880- 1980, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1984, p.55. cf. Carey, Frances and Antony Griffiths, American Prints 1879-1979. The British Museum, London, 1980, p. 32, cat. no. 56 and illus. on cover. cf. Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus, American Graphics 1860-1940, selected from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1982, p. 37, cat. no. 34. cf. Chotner, Deborah. "Bellows: The Boxing Lithographs" in exh. cat. Bellows, The Boxing Pictures. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1982, p. 69, illus. fig. 91. New York, Sotheby's, 19th and 20th Century Prints, Nov. 10 & 11, 1994, lot 11. [did not sell.]Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Images From America, Sept.-Oct. 1995.

Toledo Museum of Art, George Bellows and New York, 1900-1930, Feb. 14 - Apr. 21, 2013 (gallery 18, University of Michigan student show).

Toledo Musuem of Art, Fun and Games: The Pursuit of Leisure, Jun. 27-Sept. 21, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.