Both Members of This Club

1909

George Bellows

Painter, American, 1882 - 1925

From a darkened arena around a boxing ring, we look up at two bare chested men, one with pale, white skin and the other with brown skin, who lock arms in a boxing match in this horizontal painting. The brushstrokes are loose and visible throughout, making some details difficult to make out. The boxer to our left wears drooping, forest-green trunks and black shoes. He leans back on his bent right leg, closer to us, and tilts his face up. His mouth gapes open and his nose, chin, and neck are smeared with scarlet red, suggesting blood. His pale skin has a green cast, and his chest, arms, and legs are sinewy and muscular. His right arm is raised or pulled up overhead by the boxer to our right. Wearing dark briefs, the second boxer hunches over with head lowered toward the other man’s shoulder. He surges forward onto his deeply bent left knee, closer to us, pushing powerfully off his back leg. His face is lost in shadow and his body has less detail than his opponent, though light glints off his arching back to create gold highlights against his brown skin along his spine, ribs, and muscles of the shoulder. The men’s bodies nearly span the height of the canvas. The black ropes of the boxing ring pass in front of and behind the boxers, and the space around the ring in the top half of the painting is nearly black. Heads and faces of the spectators in the first few rows are lit by the main event and are crowded into the bottom third of the painting. Two spectators on our far left have climbed up and lean on and through the ropes, their mouths open. The crowd, which appears to be all light-skinned men and boys, are painted loosely but their mouths widen in toothy grins or are agape. The artist signed the work in yellow letters against black in the lower right corner: “Geo Bellows.”

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Painted in October 1909, the remarkably expressive and dynamic Both Members of This Club is the third and largest of George Bellows’s early prizefighting subjects. The painting’s title is a reference to the practice in private athletic clubs of introducing the contestants to the audience as “both members” to circumvent the Lewis Law of 1900 that had banned public boxing matches in New York State. Boxing was a controversial subject, but the interracial theme made this painting even more so, especially since the black boxer appears to be winning the match.

It is likely that Bellows intended Both Members of This Club as an allusion to the recent and much-publicized success of the African American professional prizefighter Jack Johnson, who had won the world heavyweight championship in 1908. The idea of a black boxing champion was so unsettling to the prejudiced social order of the time that many thought interracial bouts should be outlawed. Painted at the height of the Jim Crow era, Bellows’s powerful delineation of a white fighter about to be defeated by a black opponent was an exceptionally daring and provocative piece of social commentary.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 115 x 160.5 cm (45 1/4 x 63 3/16 in.)
    framed: 133 x 177.8 cm (52 3/8 x 70 in.)

  • Accession

    1944.13.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Both Members of This Club, 1909

Video:  George Bellows and the Art of Boxing

In this video, Sharmbá Mitchell, former two-time Junior Welterweight Champion of the World, and Charles Brock, associate curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, talk about four of the greatest sports paintings in American art by George Bellows (1882–1925).

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1882-1925]; by inheritance to his wife, Emma S. Bellows [1884-1959]; purchased 29 September 1944 through (H.V. Allison & Co., New York) by Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; gift 1944 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1910

  • Exhibition of Independent Artists, Galleries at 29-31 West 35th Street, New York, April 1910, no. 53.

  • Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, May-September 1910, no. 12.

  • One Hundred and Fifth Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, January-March 1910, no. 338.

  • Fifth Annual Exhibition of Selected Paintings by American Artists, The City Art Museum, St. Louis, September-November 1910, no. 11.

1917

  • Exhibition of Paintings [by 12 different artists], The MacDowell Club, New York, 1917, no. 3.

1925

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Work of George Bellows, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1925, no. 10, repro.

1940

  • Thirty-Six Paintings by George Bellows, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, 1940, no catalogue.

1944

  • Paintings by George Bellows, H.V. Allison & Co., New York, March-April 1944, unnumbered checklist.

  • Art in Progress: Fifteenth Anniversary Exhibition: Painting, Sculpture, Prints, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, May-October 1944, unnumbered catalogue, repro. 39.

1946

  • George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Art Institute of Chicago, January-March 1946, no. 6, repro.

  • Robert Henri & Five of his Pupils, The Century Association, New York, April-June 1946, no. 6, repro.

1957

  • George Bellows: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1957, no. 14, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1982

  • Bellows: The Boxing Pictures, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982, no. 3, fig. 29, pl. 5.

2012

  • George Bellows, National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2012-2013, pl. 18 (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1936

  • Salpeter, Harry. "George Bellows, Native." Esquire 5, no. 4 (April 1936): 137.

  • Barrows, Edward M. "George Bellows, Athlete." The North American Review 242, no. 2 (1 December 1936): 297.

1942

  • Boswell, Peyton, Jr. George Bellows. New York, 1942: 17.

1945

  • Watson, Jane. "Two Bellows Gifts Made Here." The Washington Post (7 January 1945): 11S.

  • Mechlin, Leila. "In the Art World: Two Paintings by George Bellows Acquired by National Gallery." The Washington Star (7 January 1945): C:6.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 180, color repro.

1959

  • Bouton, Margaret. American Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number One in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 40, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 328, repro.

1965

  • Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 48, repro.

  • Morgan, Charles H. George Bellows. Painter of America. New York, 1965: 101-102, 104, repro. 323.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:502, color repro.

1969

  • Young, Mahonri Sharp. "George Bellows: Master of the Prize Fight." Apollo 89 (February 1969): 138 fig. 8, 139.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 16, repro.

1971

  • Braider, Donald. George Bellows and the Ashcan School of Painting. New York, 1971: 54, fig. 8.

1973

  • Young, Mahonri Sharp. The Eight. New York, 1973: 42, color pl. 11.

1974

  • Gerdts, William H. The Great American Nude: A History in Art. New York, 1974: 158-162, fig. 8-5.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 109, pl. 70.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 125-126, pl. 113.

1980

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 17, no. 53, color repro.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 26, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 205, color repro. 220.

1982

  • Carmean, E.A., Jr., et al. Bellows: The Boxing Pictures. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982: no. 3, fig. 29, pl. 5, 32-36, 77-78.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 571, no. 869, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 166, no. 60, color repro.

  • Zurier, Rebecca. "Hey Kids: Children in the Comics & the Art of George Bellows." Print Collector's Newsletter 18, no. 6 (January-February 1988): 200-201, repro.

1990

  • Kelly, Frankin. "George Bellows' Shore House." Studies in the History of Art 37 (1990): 121, repro. no. 7.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 239, 242, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 29, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 246, repro.

  • Doezema, Marianne. George Bellows and Urban America. New Haven and London, 1992: 101-113, fig. 44, color pl. 11.

  • Quick, Michael, Jane Myers, Marianne Doezema, and Franklin Kelly. The Paintings of George Bellows. Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, 1992-1993. New York, 1992: 21-22, figs. 14 and 15.

  • Adams, Henry. "George Bellows [exh. review]." The Burlington Magazine 134, no. 1075 (October 1992): 686.

1994

  • Craven, Wayne. American Art: History and Culture. New York, 1994: 433, fig. 29.12.

  • Weinberg, H. Barbara, Doreen Bolger, and David Park Curry. American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 1994: 240, fig. 225.

1995

  • Zurier, Rebecca, Robert W. Snyder, and Virginia M. Mecklenburg. Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington. Washington and New York, 1995: 46-47, fig. 44.

  • Clark, Carol, and Allen Guttmann. "Artists and Athletes." Journal of Sports History 22 (Summer 1995): repro. 103, 104-105.

1997

  • Hughes, Robert. _ American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America_. New York, 1997: 334, color fig. 203.

1998

  • Pinkus, Karen. “Sport." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:855, 856.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 404, no. 333, color repro.

2005

  • Mathews, Nancy Mowll., et al. Moving Pictures; American Art and Early Film, 1880-1910. Exh. cat. Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown; Reynolda House, Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem; Grey Art Gallery & Study Center, New York University; The Phillips Collection, Washington; 2005-2007. Manchester, 2005: 114 fig. 178, 115.

2009

  • Peck, Glenn C. George Bellows' Catalogue Raisonné. H.V. Allison & Co., 2009. Online resource, URL: http://www.hvallison.com. Accessed 16 August 2016.

2011

  • Corebett, David Peters. "Camden Town and the Ashcan: Difference, Similarity and the 'Anglo-American' in the Work of Walter Sickert and John Sloan." Art History 34, no. 4 (September 2011): 791.

2012

  • Brock, Charles, et al. George Bellows. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2012-2013. Washington and New York, 2012: 10-11, 23, 71, 73, 77, 78, 215, pl. 18.

2013

  • Corbett, David Peters. The American Experiment: George Bellows and the Ashcan Painters, with Katherine Bourguignon and Christopher Riopelle. London, 2013: 21, 22, color fig. 6.

2016

  • National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 274, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Geo Bellows

Wikidata ID

Q12857837

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