Anthony d'Offay, London, where purchased by the previous owner in November 1972
His sale, Christies London, 9th June 2000, lot 79, where acquired by the present owner

London, Christie's, New English Art Club Centenary Exhibition, August - September 1986, cat. no.147, illustrated;
Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, William Roberts: England at Play, 20th January - 20th March 2007.

Original canvas. There is some minor paint separation to the clothes of the two men in the foreground and to the green suit of the man in the centre. This separation is consistent with the artist's working methods. The surface is dirty with specks of staining and may benefit from a light clean, but is in otherwise good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals one or two isolated flecks of very minor cosmetic retouching, including to the rope just in front of the kneeling figure, a few flecks to the left of the central man in green's stomach, one or two to the yellow jackets of the men on the left and to the background upper centre. Held in a gilt wood frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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In Roberts' early work there is a clear predilection for subjects that allow him full rein to demonstrate his ability to manage complicated groups of figures and within this period the theme of boxing and boxers turns up again and again. Both before and after WWI we find it appearing frequently, perhaps most famously the large painting of 1919-20, Interval Before Round Ten (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) commissioned from Roberts by Osbert Sitwell, but rarely are these treated as a straight rendition of the sporting event. Instead Roberts seeks to extract from the subject the drama of a moment, the potential for bringing the interplay of crowd and participants together. Thus, the corner team frantically flapping towels to cool down their fighters and the trainer massaging the tired legs of his charge offer a marvellous contrast to the passivity of the spectators, patiently waiting the promised Round Ten.

In the present work Roberts again finds a moment of drama. Having floored his opponent, presumably just before the bell, one fighter has returned to his corner where his team cluster round. One looks over his shoulder at the fighter on the floor, assessing the likelihood of him beating the referee's count. Across the ring, the cornermen for the other boxer enter the ring. It doesn't look good for him.

Roberts' ability to distil the action and excitement of such a moment is clear. The contrast of the tightness of the figure group in the left corner with the fragmented forms across the rest of the canvas seems deliberate, reflecting the way the action has played out. The gestures and expressions of all the protagonists are observed with a perfect eye for nuance, the rendition of tiredness, exhilaration and activity masterful.

Roberts developed his style throughout the post-WWI period, moving away from the extreme angularity and planes that grew from his Vorticist work. He refined his use of colour and shading to create a figural manner that was simplified yet still capable to act as a vehicle for the expressive range of movement and gesture that is at the heart of his painting.

The choice of subject that appealed to Roberts throughout his career was very much forged in the 1920s. Time and again he draws on his formidable powers of observation of otherwise regular and ordinary events to bring them to life. Whilst there will often be a formal structure to the event or location he chose, his rendition is rarely commonplace, and his interest in the human participation and interaction he saw is clear. In The Cinema (Tate Gallery) of 1920, the audience are the stars, in The Dance Club (Leeds City Art Gallery) the swaying involvement of those on the floor is at the centre of the picture. These are the entertainments of the people, and so it is quite appropriate that the most frequently depicted sporting subject Roberts touches is boxing. Always a sport that crossed social boundaries, his choice of this subject is not only consistent with his own predilection for genuinely popular themes, but it was also in line with the work of contemporaries such as Bomberg and Gertler where the boxing halls, gyms and steam baths are an integral part of the cultural world of the East End of London.

One element of The Boxing Match that both is fully in keeping with Roberts' fascination with public entertainments but also his eye for the specific is the inclusion of two cameramen on a gantry above the ring. Seen in full silhouette, they are in fact painted in a mix of black and green shades to give definition to their forms. However, it is the fact that he has included them at all that is of particular interest. Their presence is a reminder of the importance in pre-television days of the biweekly newsreels shown in the cinemas as a source of information for much of the population but it also shows a remarkable awareness of this activity being itself a part of the whole event. Sporting events in particular had been regularly filmed since the late 1890s and boxing, with its small static stage was much more easily filmed than, say, horse-racing or a football match. Yet it is extremely unusual to find those who are capturing an event for one medium being themselves captured in another. As such Roberts is recognising the use of film as both an event that attracts his interest but also the wider media world. An as yet untraced drawing which possibly remained in the artist's family collection entitled Boxing Scene with Film Cameras would suggest a link to the present work, and may yet throw further light on this intriguing aspect of the painting that offers a very rare insight into the place of news film reporting in the world of popular entertainment between the world wars.

The Boxing Match therefore holds an intriguing place in Robert's work of the immediate post-WWI period, and presents us with an image that is still intensely striking and modern over eighty years after its execution. Possibly the only early oil painting of the subject by the artist still in private hands, it also includes the extremely rare presentation of a filming session, something that appears to have little or no parallel in British Art of the period and thus marks it as a quite remarkable example of his work.

We are greatful to David Cleall for his kind assistance with cataloguing theﷺ prese🔜nt work.