Pugilism has been a favored subject of artists and photographers since boxers first stepped into the ring. "Strike Fast, ...

What boxing gave the young John L ... After his defeat to Jake Kilrain, John L. Sullivan never fought again. Not seriously. Not competitively. Never with an eye to regaining his lost pre-eminence.

So, the give-and-take in works like this, by George Bellows, perhaps America's best-known painter of boxing, seems to take on new meaning. This 1923 work, called "Introducing John L. Sullivan ...