AMERICAN FOLK ART "BOXING SCENE DEPICTING SUGAR RAY ROBINSON AND STEVE BELLOISE" ON METAL PANEL

This early 20th-Century American folk art painting captures a dramatic boxing match with one fighter knocked to the canvas before a crowded ringside audience, rendered in vivid oil paint on metal. Prizefighting emerged as one of America’s most popular spectator sports during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, inspiring vernacular paintings, carnival art, and barroom decorations that celebrated legendary bouts and working class athletic culture. A period label affixed to the reverse identifies the scene as the 1950 middleweight title fight between Sugar Ray Robinson and Steve Belloise, with the work painted on sheet metal by artist R.S. Browne and housed in an ornate gilt frame.