An Afternoon at Max's

An Afternoon at Max's — Robert Riggs. c. 1932–33.

Medium: lithograph. Dimensions: Sheet: 43 x 57 cm (16 15/16 x 22 7/16 in.); Image: 38.2 x 52.6 cm (15 1/16 x 20 11/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Although Riggs supported himself by working as an illustrator for Fortune, Life, The Saturday Evening Post, and other popular magazines, he began making lithographs in 1932 and enjoyed printmaking into the late 1940s. Because he liked pageantry, crowds, noise, and the atmosphere of smoke-filled interiors illuminated by harsh, bright lights, Riggs depicted the circus or boxing ring with a stark, gritty realism. Perhaps Riggs was interested in boxing scenes because of George Bellows’s print of 1916, Stag at Sharkeys, which he might have seen at an exhibition of the artist’s lithographs at the Print Club in Philadelphia, where he lived.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.