Between Rounds, Large, First Stone

Between Rounds depicts a challenge match between the former lightweight champion Jimmy Nolan and his sparring partner Tornado Black. Black had not only usurped Nolan's title, but also his wife. While Black was favored going into the match, "It was rumored that Nolan had lost his punch, but as he was about to be knocked out, he used his 'last ounce' of strength to win the fight" ("Bellows: The Boxing Drawings," in Bellows: The Boxing Pictures, p. 53). Like the same titled drawing from 1912, this lithograph depicts the ring during a rest period. The focus is on Nolan, who is perceptibly fatigued and leans against the ropes as his three handlers attend to the soon to be champion, giving him water, fanning him and providing a closely whispered pep talk. Across the ring, the reigning champion, Black rests, equally exhausted against the ropes, receiving his own whispered fighting words. Bellows powerful use of light and shadow conveys the tension and heat of the scene, and while the fighters rest, his dynamic depiction of the crowd details the other side of a boxing match, the audience's involvement.
Between Rounds is a powerful example of Bellows' fascination with the physicality and psychology of American sport. As noted by the art historian, Charles H. Morgan, "[Bellows] was not particular about detail; it was the design and the essence of the action that mattered. When one expert pointed out that fighters never worked their hands and feet in some of the combinations he gave them, he retorted: 'I don't know anything about boxing. I am just painting two men trying to kill each other.'" (George Bellows: Painter of America, New York, 1965, p. 77) Between Rounds demonstrates that Bellows understood the grit, determination and suffering of sport as only an athlete could. He also celebrated the importance of the audience in the creation of the atmosphere and drama of a match--the necessity of the spectator to the very concept of sport.