Collection Online as of March 25, 2023
Introducing Georges Carpentier
George Bellows
(American, 1882–1925)
Lithograph
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1936.651
Catalogue raisonné: Mason 98
Location
not on view
Description
Promoted as the “battle of the century,” the match between French pugilist Georges Carpentier and American Jack Dempsey took place on July 2, 1921, in Jersey City at an enormous outdoor arena built specifically for the bout. With the First World War fresh in mind, the crowd favored Carpentier, a twice-decorated pilot in the French Air Force, over Dempsey, who was viewed as a draft evader despite having been exonerated of the charge by a jury the previous year. The match ended quickly with a knockout by Dempsey in the fourth round. The event attracted more than 80,000 spectators and generated boxing’s first million-dollar gate. A large contingent of reporters, photographers, and motion picture cameramen—several of whom are gathered on a platform at the upper left—covered the spectacle. Bellows, on assignment for the New York World newspaper to sketch the proceedings, sat in the press section shown in the foreground, although he did not record himself among the excited throng.
George Bellows
An accomplished athlete, George Bellows (1882–1925) was an especially appropriate artist to address the subject of sports. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, he played baseball and basketball as a youth, developing sufficient ability to letter in both at Ohio State University. According to some accounts, scouts for the Cincinnati Reds took notice of his shortstop talents. However, Bellows’s first love, art, ultimately intervened, and after his junior year he relocated to New York to study painting. In a remarkably short period he became the leading artist of his generation, a reputation fueled through boxing subjects such as Stag at Sharkey’s. In his later years he developed recreational passions for tennis and billiards, which he routinely played with friends. Bellows’s life was cut short at the age of 42, due to complications after his appendix ruptured.