Counted Out
George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882-1925)
1912
- Medium
- Lithographic crayon and charcoal, with brush and black ink, scraping and smudging, over touches of graphite on cut and pieced cream wove papers, laid down on ivory wove paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 64.8 × 52.6 cm (25 9/16 × 20 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
A native of Ohio, George Wesley Bellows studied early on with Robert Henri, a proponent of urban realism. Encouraged by Henri, Bellows sought out subjects that represented the vitality of the everyday lives of New Yorkers. His first studio was located across the street from Sharkey’s Athletic Club, where he became an avid boxing fan. A number of dramatic paintings, such as his 1909 Stag at Sharkey’s (now in the Cleveland Museum of Art), established his reputation as the preeminent painter of this quintessential urban subject.
In 1913 American Magazine commissioned Bellows to produce four drawings to accompany an article by L. C. Moíse recounting the fight between former lightweight champion Jimmy Nolan and his nemesis, Tornado Black. Counted Out is one of the four. When the fight started, the two men could hardly contain their hatred for one another, and the energy inside the ring fueled the frenetic audience. Just before the third round, Nolan realized he had “lost his punch,” and did everything possible to fend off Black’s fierce attacks. When he finally mustered his “last ounce,” he prevailed, and the “Tornado dropped senseless to the floor.” The four drawings together…
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
