Dempsey and Firpo

Painted in 1924 by George Bellows (1882–1925), 'Dempsey and Firpo' captures the electrifying moment in the 1923 heavyweight championship bout at the Polo Grounds in New York when the Argentine challenger Luis Ángel Firpo punched the reigning champion Jack Dempsey clear out of the ring and into the sportswriters at ringside. Dempsey is shown tumbling toward the viewer; Firpo stands alone in the ring in triumph. The canvas is a defining work of the American Ashcan School and one of the icons of modern sports painting, held today in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Exhibition Venue

Whitney Museum of American Art

New York, United States