Artwork Page for Stag at Sharkey's

Details / Information for Stag at Sharkey's

Stag at Sharkey's

1909
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George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 110 x 140.5 x 8.5 cm (43 5/16 x 55 5/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 92 x 122.6 cm (36 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection 1922.1133
Public Domain
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Location
208 American Gilded Age and Realism
Print
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Did You Know?

George Bellows was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University where he played baseball and basketball.

Description

Bellows was no stranger to Sharkey’s Athletic Club, a raucous saloon with a backroom boxing ring, located near his studio. Founded by Tom “Sailor” Sharkey, an ex-fighter who had also served in the US Navy, the club attracted men seeking to watch or participate in matches. Because public boxing was illegal in New York at the time, a private event had to be arranged in order for a bout to take place. Participation was usually limited to members of a particular club, but whenever an outsider competed, he was given temporary membership and known as a “stag.” Although boxing had its share of detractors who considered it uncouth at best or barbaric at worst, its proponents—among them President Theodore Roosevelt—regarded it a healthy manifestation of manliness. Around the time Bellows painted Stag at Sharkey’s, boxing was moving from a predominantly working-class enterprise to one with greater genteel appeal. For some contemporaries, boxing was a powerful analogy for the notion that only the strongest and fittest would flourish in modern society.
A horizontally oriented oil painting with thick brushstrokes depicts two shirtless men with light skin tones boxing with an audience clustered around the base of the ring. The boxers lean in toward each other, heads meeting and muscles flexing. A third man, fully clothed with a dark skin tone, leans from behind the boxers, one arm swinging out to our right.

Stag at Sharkey's

1909

George Bellows

(American, 1882–1925)
America

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