The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 6, 2024

Introducing the Champion, No. 1, Large

Introducing the Champion, No. 1, Large

1916
(American, 1882–1925)
Catalogue raisonné: Mason 26
Location: not on view

Description

Due to the popularity of his early boxing paintings such as Stag at Sharkey’s, Bellows was often commissioned by newspapers and magazines to depict sporting events, both actual and fictional. One of the artist’s first boxing prints, Introducing the Champion was inspired by a drawing he made three years earlier to illustrate a short story in American Magazine, which describes an imagined lightweight champion nicknamed Tornado Black. The cocky gloating of this character, who panders to the crowd, provides the impetus for Bellows’s rendering.
  • Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 14-September 18, 2016).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH (05/14/2016-09/18/2016): “Stag at Sharkey’s: George Bellows and the Art of Sports”
  • {{cite web|title=Introducing the Champion, No. 1, Large|url=false|author=George Bellows|year=1916|access-date=06 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.494