Pop Hart

American painter George Hart worked as an artist always under the name Pop Hart. He was a self-taught artist except for brief periods at the Art Institute of Chicago and Académie Julian in Paris. His strong desire to travel around the world, led him to Mexico, Central America, North Africa, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific, especially Tahiti, less than two months after Paul Gauguin died. As early as 18, he sailed on to a cattle boat to London, and while there began his practice as an itinerant sign painter and stage painter to earn his living while traveling. Later Hart settled in Los Angeles and had contacts with the Ashcan School. His older siblings were also all artists.

His manner of using watercolor was revolutionary for its time in its loose and free application. His painting used a wide range of subjects including animals, botanical studies, nudes, and landscapes. In the 1920s he also began printmaking, working in drypoint, lithographs, and etching. Hart added social-realistic and stylized elements to his impressionistic style.

The Cockfight bears the subtitle Santo Domingo, which was probably referring to the capital of the Dominican Republic. The work was a hand-colored lithograph from 1923 measuring 19.7 x 32.4 cm (sheet 24.1 x 36.8 cm). Without coloring, there are also side-inverted prints of the same motif signed by the artist. Croquet Players, on the other hand, was a drawing in colored chalk, charcoal, and ink on paper. It was produced in 1929 sized 13.6 x 21 cm.