Dempsey and Firpo

George Bellows painted this Dempsey and Firpo in 1924, capturing the dramatic moment when Argentine boxer Luis Firpo knocked heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey out of the ring. The fight on September 14, 1923 at New York's Polo Grounds lasted less than four minutes, with Firpo going down nine times and Dempsey twice. Bellows attended on assignment for the New York Evening Journal.

Though Firpo used his right hook to launch Dempsey from the ring, Bellows portrayed him swinging with his left to amplify geometric tension. The triangular composition places Firpo's erect body against Dempsey's overturned form. The low viewpoint puts us among the spectators pushing Dempsey back into the ring. The artist painted himself as a balding man at the extreme left.

Tragically, Bellows died of a ruptured appendix just seven months after completing this work. It has been at the Whitney Museum of American Art since the museum opened in 1931, his most famous boxing painting.