Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.462
Gallery Label:
John “Jack” Broughton (1704–1789), who began his working life as a ferryman on the Thames, was Britain’s most successful bare-knuckle boxer. Such was his fame that the sculptor Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770) modeled the arms of his statue of Hercules on Broughton’s muscular limbs. The carved relief visible behind Broughton is based on The Wrestlers, a Roman statue (after a Greek original of the third century bce) now in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Mortimer sought to confer an ancient authority on his painting and legitimize the modern form of boxing Broughton practiced by linking the boxer’s body to the art of antiquity. However, Broughton’s rules for boxing, which he codified in 1743, aimed to distance the nascent sport from wrestling by emphasizing an upright stance and banning holds below the waist. The shadow Broughton’s body casts over the relief may be a subtle reference to this new form of fighting that eclipses the old. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022
