About the Artist

(1882-1925) Born in Columbus, Ohio, George Bellows attended Ohio University before studying under Robert Henri in New York. His choice of proletarian and sporting subjects and adoption of a loose, impressionistic style allies him firmly with the Ashcan School, the first generation of New York realists, so called because of their uncompromisingly urban themes, for which Henri was the spokesman.

Bellows was one of the organizers of the 1913 Armory Show which introduced modern European painting in America.

He achieved his first recognition with the bravura Stag at Sharkey's (1907), a vivid representation of an illegal prizefight. A later boxing painting, Dempsey and Firpo (1924; New York, Whitney Museum), represents his interest in such sporting subjects and likely served as his inspiration in producing this lithograph of the same title.

Bellows produced many lithographs after 1916 until his death in 1925.

Excerpted from www.AskArt.com submitted by Hammer Galleries