George Bellows
Identification of Painting
The George Bellows painting that will be reviewed and critiqued in this paper is "Stag at Sharkey's 1909." The painting is oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 48 1/4 (91 x 112.6 centimeters). The painting was done in 1909.
Description of Painting
What Bellows has done with this painting is create an exaggeration of two boxers going at it. The boxers are locked in a bloody battle. It is a brutal image. There appears to be blood on the arms and shoulders of the boxer on the left, and it seems as though the neck and part of the back of the boxer on the right shows blood as well. The faces in the audience are twisted, grotesque, and only a very few are even discernible. Just above the boxing mat, under the right shoe of the boxer on the right is a pair of eyes and eyebrows of a face partially hidden. Likely this face belongs to a young boy. The eyes on that face show either fear or concern. To the left of that half-hidden face is a full face of a man with a cigar; when a magnifying glass zeros in on that man with a cigar his eyes are distorted and he has that same ruddy blood-like color on his right cheek and chin.
Another face to the right of the fight referee appears to have the same red blotch as is seen on the boxers' skins. He is a bald black man and just to his right the forehand and bald head of a Caucasian man who seemly can't bear to look. On the right of those two men is another fight fan that has his arms wrapped around one of the posts holding up the ropes. In the foreground there is a man seeming to look back at the artist, waving his arm toward the fighters, a cigar in his mouth.
The fighters are very tall and muscle-bound. Both men have "abs" that seem to have been well cultivated; the ripples of muscle on their legs and chests are impressive. Their heads have collided, and seem to be stuck together. The long musculature is exaggerated on both fighters from the waist up. The fighter on the right is about to land...
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