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Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827, British, The Prize Fight, 1787

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Creator:

Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827

Title:

The Prize Fight

Date:

1787

Medium:

Watercolor with pen and black and gray ink over graphite on moderately thick, moderately textured, beige laid paper

Dimensions:

Sheet: 18 1/8 x 27 3/8 inches (46 x 69.5 cm), Frame: 29 3/4 x 36 1/4 x 1 1/8 inches (75.6 x 92.1 x 2.9 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

J. Whatman - Fig. 197 in shorter "James Whatman II 1764 - 93, page 337.

Signed and dated in black ink, lower left: "T. Rowlandson 1787"

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1993.30.113

Classification:

Drawings & Watercolors

Collection:

Prints and Drawings

Subject Terms:

Access:

Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.

Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:4105

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Sports of varying degrees of brutality and gentility flourished during the eighteenth century. Boxing, hitherto an unregulated and amateur sport, became professionalized and commercialized. John Broughton, the most celebrated pugilist of the day, drew up rules which were introduced on August 16, 1743, and were enforced until 1838, when they were superseded by the London Prize Ring Rules. In 1747 Broughton opened an academy in London where gloves were worn for the first time. The Subject of Rowlandson's ambitious watercolor has never been identified conclusively, but it may commemorate the celebrated fight Richard Humphries (the "Gentleman Boxer") and Samuel Martin which took place at Newmarket on May 3, 1786. The contest was attended by several hundred people, including members of the English and French nobility. The London Chronicle reported that "the long contended battle between Martin, the Bath Butcher, and the famous Humphries…lasted about and hour and a half, when the latter beat the former in a terrible manner; upwards of 4000:1 were won and lost on the occasion."

Gillian Forrester

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 108 cat. no. 89

No More Fog at the Channel - Holbein to Hockney - 500 Years of British Art (Fundación Juan March, 2012-10-05 - 2013-01-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Rowlandson - Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England (Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 2011-04-08 - 2011-06-12) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Rowlandson - Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England (Block Museum of Art, 2011-01-14 - 2011-03-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Vision - Observation and Imagination in British Art (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, 2007-10-06 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Rowlandson from the Paul Mellon Collection (National Sporting Library and Museum, 2005-04-14 - 2005-06-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Pleasures and Pastimes (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-02-21 - 1990-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Royal Academy of Arts, 1978-03-04 - 1978-05-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-11-16 - 1978-01-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Baskett, The drawings of Thomas Rowlandson in the Paul Mellon Collection, Brandywine Press, New York, 1978, p. 34, no. 114, NJ18 .R79 B38 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 279-80, fig. 6, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's sale catalogue : A collection of water colour drawings by Thomas Rowlandson, the property of a gentleman. . . : 12 February 1912, Christie's, February 12, 1912, p. 4, lot 112, Fiche B51 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elisabeth Fairman, Pleasures and pastimes, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990, p. 39, no. 320, DA485 F25 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John T. Hayes, Rowlandson : watercolours and drawings, Phaidon, London, 1972, pp. 40, 100, no. 37, pl. 37, NJ18 R79 H39 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Hoozee, British vision : observation and imagination in British art, 1750-1950, , Mercatorfonds Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels , Ghent, 2007, pp. 118, 119, no. 51, fig. 51, N6767 B78 2007 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Patricia Phagan, Thomas Rowlandson, pleasures and pursuits in Georgian England , Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. London, 2011, pp.34,125,130-31, no. 45, NJ18 R79 P53 2011 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 64, 132, no. 155, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Riely, Rowlandson drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 11-12, no. 14, pl. XI, NJ18 .R79 R68 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Simon Schama, Rowlandson in the Round, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, Issue no. 3963, March 10, 1978, p. 282, Film S748 (SML) Also available Online in TLS Historical Archive (ORBIS) [ORBIS]

The Cunning Eye of Thomas Rowlandson, Apollo, vol.105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 279-80, fig. 6, N1 A54 05:2 + (YCBA) Also available: N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Treasure island : British art from Holbein to Hockney, Fundación Juan March, Madrid, 2012, p. 148, no. 44, N6761 .T74 2012 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 108-9, no. 89, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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