Introducing the Champion, No. 1, Large — History & Facts
Due to the popularity of his early boxing paintings such as <em>Stag at Sharkey’s,</em> Bellows was often commissioned by newspapers and magazines to depict sporting events, both actual and fictional. One of the artist’s first boxing prints, <em>Introducing the Champion</em> was inspired by a drawing he made three years earlier to illustrate a short story in <em>American Magazine,</em> which describes an imagined lightweight champion nicknamed Tornado Black. The cocky gloating of this character, who panders to the crowd, provides the impetus for Bellows’s rendering.
More Artworks by George Wesley Bellows
Pennsylvania Station Excavation
George Wesley Bellows
Rock Reef, Maine
George Wesley Bellows
New York
George Wesley Bellows
Dock Builders
George Wesley Bellows
Through the Trees, Monhegan Island, Maine
George Wesley Bellows
Evening Blue (Tending the Lobster Traps, Early Morning)
George Wesley Bellows
The Grove – Monhegan
George Wesley Bellows
Rain on the River
George Wesley Bellows
The Coming Storm
George Wesley Bellows
Mill Dam
George Wesley Bellows
