Dempsey and Firpo, one of George Bellows’s most ambitious paintings, captures a pivotal moment in the September 14, 1923 prize-fight between American heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and his Argentine rival Luis Angel Firpo. The frenzy lasted less than four minutes, Firpo going to the floor nine times and Dempsey twice. Although Dempsey was the eventual victor, the artist chose to represent the dramatic moment when Firpo knocked his opponent out of the ring with a tremendous blow to the jaw. At the match on assignment for the New York Evening Journal, Bellows portrays himself as a balding man at the extreme left of the picture. His geometrically structured composition also creates a low vantage point that includes the viewer: looking up at this angle, we find ourselves among the spectators pushing Dempsey back into the ring. The excitement is further heightened by the chromatic contrast between the fighters bathed in lurid light, and the dark, smoke-filled atmosphere around them.
About the Canvas Prints
Dempsey And Firpo by George Bellows. Bring your artwork to life with the texture and depth of a stretched canvas print. Your image gets printed onto our premium processed canvases and then stretched on a white maple wooden frame (gallery wrap) or framed inside black maple (framed canvas). Your canvas print will be shipped within 4 days in "ready to frame" condition for normal rolled and "ready to hang" condition for frames and wraps with pre-attached hanging wire and/or mounting points.