1921
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
A Knockout is a 1921 by George Bellows, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
The painting shows a boxing scene with a fighter being restrained by a referee. The scene is chaotic, with audience members in the ring. It's based on a drawing from 15 years earlier, when boxing was a rough sport. The artist made only a few prints of this composition. To learn more about the printing technique used, look up chiaroscuro.
Although created in 1921, A Knockout is based on a drawing Bellows made nearly 15 years earlier, at a time when boxing was a rough-and-tumble underground sport practiced in back rooms of New York taverns. Here, unruly audience members surge into the ring while a referee restrains an enraged fighter from further injuring his opponent. For reasons unknown, Bellows printed only a few impressions of this composition, and it remains one of his rarest lithographs.
Read the full account in the museum source.
George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City.
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