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Preliminaries
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePreliminaries, 1916. George Bellows (American, 1882–1925). Lithograph; image: 40 x 49.6 cm (15 3/4 x 19 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 1936.642
