Stag at Sharkey's (1909): Art, History and Details

Stag at Sharkey's (1909) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is George Bellows (American, 1882–1925).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Bellows was no stranger to Sharkey’s Athletic Club, a raucous saloon with a backroom boxing ring, located near his studio. Founded by Tom “Sailor” Sharkey, an ex-fighter who had also served in the US Navy, the club attracted men seeking to watch or participate in matches. Because public boxing was illegal in New York at the time, a private event had to be arranged in order for a bout to take place. Participation was usually limited to members of a particular club, but whenever an outsider competed, he was given temporary membership and known as a “stag.” Although boxing had its share of detractors who considered it uncouth at best or barbaric at worst, its proponents—among them President Theodore Roosevelt—regarded it a healthy manifestation of manliness. Around the time Bellows painted Stag at Sharkey’s, boxing was moving from a predominantly working-class enterprise to one with greater genteel appeal. For some contemporaries, boxing was a powerful analogy for the notion that only the strongest and fittest would flourish in modern society.

Object facts

• Title: Stag at Sharkey's
• Date: 1909
• Creator attribution: George Bellows (American, 1882–1925)
• Culture: America
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 110 x 140.5 x 8.5 cm (43 5/16 x 55 5/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 92 x 122.6 cm (36 1/4 x 48 1/4 in.)
• Collection: American - Painting
• Department: American Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1922.1133

A detail from the museum

George Bellows was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University where he played baseball and basketball.

Collection credit

Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Rihn, Andrew. "On Bellows and Rodin: Stag Fights, Explosions, and Spectatorship," Cleveland Review of Books, November 4, 2022.
• Saggese, Jordana Moore. Heavyweight : Black Boxers and the Fight for Representation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2024.
• Schjeldahl, Peter, "Young and Gifted," New Yorker, June 25, 2012.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.