The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 23, 2024
An Afternoon at Max's
c. 1932–33
(American, 1896–1970)
Sheet: 43 x 57 cm (16 15/16 x 22 7/16 in.); Image: 38.2 x 52.6 cm (15 1/16 x 20 11/16 in.)
Bequest of John Bonebrake 2012.276
Catalogue raisonné: Bassham 21
Location: not on view
Description
Although Riggs supported himself by working as an illustrator for Fortune, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and other popular magazines, he began making lithographs in 1932 and enjoyed printmaking into the late 1940s. Because he liked pageantry, crowds, noise, and the atmosphere of smoke-filled interiors illuminated by harsh, bright lights, Riggs depicted the circus or boxing ring with a stark, gritty realism. Perhaps Riggs was interested in boxing scenes because of George Bellows’s print of 1916, Stag at Sharkeys, which he might have seen at an exhibition of the artist’s lithographs at the Print Club in Philadelphia, where he lived.- Herbert Halpern Fine Art, New Orleans; John Bonebrake
- A Passion for Prints: The John Bonebrake Donation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 2, 2011-January 29, 2012).
- {{cite web|title=An Afternoon at Max's|url=false|author=Robert Riggs|year=c. 1932–33|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.276