Artwork Page for A Knockout

Details / Information for A Knockout

A Knockout

1921

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
Culture
America
Medium
lithograph
Credit Line
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1936.647
Catalogue raisonné
Mason 92
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Although created in 1921, A Knockout is based on a drawing Bellows made nearly 15 years earlier, at a time when boxing was a rough-and-tumble underground sport practiced in back rooms of New York taverns. Here, unruly audience members surge into the ring while a referee restrains an enraged fighter from further injuring his opponent. For reasons unknown, Bellows printed only a few impressions of this composition, and it remains one of his rarest lithographs.
A horizontally oriented lithograph in grainy black ink depicts three men in a boxing ring. Centered, a shirtless man with light skin tone lies prone on the bright floor. Two figures with light skin tones stand over him; one in a light shirt faces away, while another on the left hunches forward with gloves. Behind, a crowd with expressive faces emerges from frenetic cross-hatching, blending into heavy shadows. Handwritten text marks the bottom margin.

A Knockout

1921

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
America

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