Which American realist painter created the 1909 boxing scene 'Stag at Sharkey's'?

Which American realist painter created the 1909 boxing scene Stag at Sharkey’s? The answer is George Bellows.

George Wesley Bellows painted Stag at Sharkey’s in 1909, depicting two boxers fighting in a private athletic club across from his New York studio. The title refers to “stags,” fighters who could enter the club temporarily even though they were not regular members. Bellows transformed this local spectacle into one of the most energetic images of American urban life.

The low viewpoint places the viewer close to the ring and among the crowd. Quick, forceful brushstrokes blur the fighters’ bodies, conveying speed and impact rather than carefully recording every movement. The work is associated with the Ashcan School, whose artists often depicted everyday life and crowded neighborhoods in early twentieth-century New York.

Bellows created the painting as part of a boxing series and later made a lithograph of the scene in 1917. A frequent mistake is to connect the work with Thomas Eakins, another major American realist who painted sporting subjects. Eakins is famous for boxing and rowing scenes, but Stag at Sharkey’s is Bellows’s painting.