Stag at Sharkey's
{{Short description|Painting by George Bellows}}
{{Infobox Painting
| image_file=George Bellows (American, 1882-1925) - Stag at Sharkey's - 1922.1133 - Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg
| alt=
| image_size=300px
| title=Stag at Sharkey's
| artist=George Wesley Bellows
| year=1909
| height_imperial = 36.25
| width_imperial = 48.25
| height_metric = 92
| width_metric = 122.6
| museum=Cleveland Museum of Art
| city=Cleveland
}}
Stag at Sharkey's is a 1909{{cite web| publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art| title=Stag at Sharkey's| access-date=2014-07-09| url=http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1133.1922}} oil painting by the American artist George Wesley Bellows depicting two boxers fighting in the private athletic club situated across from his studio. It is part of the Ashcan School movement known in particular for depicting scenes of daily life in early twentieth century New York City, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. Participants in the boxing ring were usually members of the club, but occasionally outsiders would fight with temporary memberships. These fighters were known as "stags".{{cite web| publisher=PBS| title=Sister Wendy's American Collection| access-date=2014-07-09| url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sisterwendy/works/sta.html}}
Description
Bellows used quick strokes to create a blurred image, simulating the two fighters in motion. He also chose a low point of view to situate the viewer among the crowd watching the fight, creating a sense of "expressive involvement" in the action.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZ1xM2Z9eP4C&dq=Stag+at+Sharkey%27s&pg=PA148|title=Remarkable Modernisms: Contemporary American Authors on Modern Art|last=Morris|first=Daniel|date=2002|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-324-7|pages=148|language=en}} He said: "I don't know anything about boxing, I'm just painting two men trying to kill each other."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNLHffRuluIC&dq=Stag+at+Sharkey%27s&pg=PA6|title=With My Profound Reverence for the Victims: George Bellows|last=Art|first=Samuel Dorsky Museum of|date=2001-09-23|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-3118-5|language=en}}
History
He painted the work in August 1909, as a part of a boxing series.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qM1aojciyYC&dq=Stag+at+Sharkey%27s&pg=PA103|title=George Bellows and Urban America|last=Doezema|first=Marianne|date=1992|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-05043-1|pages=97|language=en}} The painting has been a part of the Cleveland Museum of Art's permanent collection since 1922. He also created a lithograph of the scene, in 1917.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZY4SSPuxaHcC&dq=Stag+at+Sharkey%27s&pg=PA182|title=An American Collection: Works from the Amon Carter Museum|last1=Art|first1=Amon Carter Museum of Western|last2=Junker|first2=Patricia A.|last3=McCandless|first3=Barbara|last4=Gillham|first4=Will|last5=Myers|first5=Jane|last6=Stewart|first6=Rick|last7=Rohrbach|first7=John|date=2001|publisher=Hudson Hills|isbn=978-1-55595-198-6|language=en}} The lithograph is located at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
References
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{{George Bellows}}
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Category:Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art