Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Dempsey through the Ropes
Artist:George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
Date:1923
Medium:Lithographic crayon on paper
Dimensions:21 1/2 x 19 5/8 in. (54.6 x 49.8 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1925
Accession Number:25.107.1
Inscription: Signed (lower center): Geo. Bellows
the artist, New York (1923–d. 1925); his widow, Emma S. Bellows, New York (1925; sold through Frederick Keppel & Co., New York, to MMA)
New York. Frederick Keppel & Co. "An Exhibition of Lithographs and Drawings by George Bellows," March 24–April 25, 1925, no. 185.
Art Institute of Chicago. "George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints," January 31–March 10, 1946, no. 65.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 13).
Fort Worth, Tex. Fort Worth Public Library. February 5–28, 1952, no catalogue.
New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs," March 15–May 1, 1966, no. 6 (listed under Drawings; dated 1924).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Fort Worth. Amon Carter Museum of American Art. "The American Personality: The Artist-Illustrator of Life in the United States, 1860–1930," July 8–August 22, 1976, no. 14.
Los Angeles. Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery. "The American Personality: The Artist-Illustrator of Life in the United States, 1860–1930," October 12–December 12, 1976, no. 14.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "American Prints: Process & Proofs," November 25, 1981–January 24, 1982, unnumbered cat. (p. 177; as "Study for 'Dempsey Through the Ropes,'" 1923-24).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Homage to George Bellows," May 4–July 4, 1982.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Bellows: The Boxing Pictures," September 5, 1982–January 2, 1983, no. 22.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "George Bellows," June 10–October 8, 2012, no. 127.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "George Bellows," November 14, 2012–February 18, 2013, no. 127.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "George Bellows," March 16–June 9, 2013, no. 127.
"Dempsey Through the Ropes—Lithograph by George Bellows." Vanity Fair 27 (October 1926), p. 78, ill.
Peyton Boswell, Jr. George Bellows. New York, 1942, ill. p. 60, dates it as 1924.
Frederick A. Sweet inGeorge Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1946, pp. 25, 49, no. 65, ill. p. 77, notes that Bellows was commissioned by the "New York Journal" to make this drawing of the Jack Dempsey-Luis Angel Firpo fight, which took place on September 14, 1923.
Carl O. Schniewind inGeorge Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1946, p. 31.
Frank Seiberling, Jr. "George Bellows, 1882-1925, His Life and Development as an Artist." PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1948, pp. 81, 91, 142.
Robert Beverly Hale. 100 American Painters of the 20th Century: Works Selected from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1950, ill. p. 36.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Miniatures. Vol. 17, album W, Twentieth-Century American Painters. New York, 1950, unpaginated, no. 5, ill. (color).
Nedra Jenkins. "Art Group's Exhibit Shows Work of American Life." Fort Worth Star-Telegram (February 4, 1952), p. 8.
Reynolds Girdler, Jr. "Crayons in the History of the Arts." Art Education 20 (January 1967), p. 32, ill. p. 30.
Charles H. Morgan. The Drawings of George Bellows. Alhambra, Calif., 1973, unpaginated, ill. and ill. front cover.
Linda Ayres and Deborah Chotner inBellows: The Boxing Pictures. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 93, no. 22, ill., note that this drawing was not published in the "New York Evening Journal" [see Ref. Sweet 1946] because of a printers' strike; list two lithographs ("Dempsey through the Ropes," 1923-24, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; "Dempsey and Firpo," 1923-24, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.), five preparatory sketches (all c. 1923-24, one in a private collection, four at the Mead Art Museum), and a painting ("Dempsey and Firpo," 1924; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, N.Y.) related to this composition.
Seaver Leslie. "Bellows Knockout Action Captures Symmetry Title." Art/World 6 (May 21–June 18, 1982), ill. p. 1.
Linda Ayres inBellows: The Boxing Pictures. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 62, fig. 78.
Marianne Doezema inThe Paintings of George Bellows. Exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex. New York, 1992, pp. 127–28, fig. 27.
Evan Bates, ed. American Drawings and Prints From Benjamin West to Edward Hopper. Mineola, N.Y., 2007, ill. p. 15.
Robert Conway inGeorge Bellows. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., 2012, pp. 219, 327 n. 29, colorpl. 127.
George Bellows (American, Columbus, Ohio 1882–1925 New York)
1921
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
