Cleveland Museum of Art

Preliminaries

George Bellows

Date

1916

Medium

lithograph

Culture

America

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

By 1916, the year Bellows created Preliminaries, boxing was legal in New York and had begun attracting audiences beyond its usual working-class, male demographic. Relegating the ensuing match to the background, this print focuses on a group of wealthy spectators who arrive to take their seats in Madison Square Garden. According to the artist’s widow, the subject was occasioned by the first bout in New York to which women were permitted to attend.

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