GAME OF THE YEAR, 1953
Oil on canvas. 48 x 34in. (122 x 86cm.)
Signed, inscribed with the title and dated 1953 on the reverse.
Provenance
Sotheby’s, London, 24th April 1985, lot 562. Illustrated in b/w in the catalogue.
Harry Langdon.
FIFA.
Preston, The National Football Museum.
Exhibited
London, New Burlington Galleries, 1954, no. 145.
Preston, the National Football Museum, 2008.
The painting once belonged to the journalist, Harry Langdon, who most probably purchased it at the studio sale in 1985. Langdon collected football memorabilia and football-related art, and sold his collection to FIFA, which then sold the collection to the National Football Museum as the basis for its collections.
In 1953 the Football Association marked its 90th anniversary with a competition and exhibition called ‘Football and the Fine Arts’. With the support of the Arts Council the aim was to “convey something of the rich and exciting opportunities that football can offer the artist.”
From 1,710 entries from artists all over the UK, the judging panel, which included the then Directors of the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery, selected 150 works for inclusion in the final exhibition. They also awarded a number of prizes. The first prize was awarded to LS Lowry for Going to the Match.
In a letter to the author dated 14 July 2003, Trevor Dannatt, the architect, wrote:
“I remember that she consulted me about a ‘Football’ painting competition she was going in for. I was rather amused as she wished to make the goalposts a different proportion, (more like a croquet hoop!) did I think it would matter? I think I said in this context it probably would.”
Evidently, Colquhoun did not take his advice. The imagery is strikingly similar to that in the proposed Maze Hill murals (see Crucifixion, c. 1953, and Heads of Angels, c. 1952) although here the inspiration is secular.
The source of Colquhoun’s title may have been the famous 1953 FA Cup final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers in which Stanley Mathews finally won an FA Cup winners’ medal. However, it has been pointed out that the closing date for the competition occurred before the Cup final had been played. The relationship between the painting, its title and the competition is not helped by the absence of any contemporary documentation.
See note to Crucifixion (1954).