Top 5 most famous works of sports painting and the artists who painted them

Painting and sports have a lot in common. For example, the prices of “names”. The cost of transfers of famous players rivals the price of masterpieces by famous painters. For example: the purchase of Zinedine Yazid Zidane from Juventus in 2001 cost Real Madrid $53 million, while Van Gogh’s Doctor Gachet at the same time cost only 10 million dollars less. The same Real Madrid acquired Ronaldo in 2009 for 80 million pounds. The closest in price to this player is the price of Munch’s Scream. There is also a more direct connection between art and sports – works depicting athletes and their fights. Here are five of the most famous masterpieces and their authors.

Edouard Manet. Impressionist “Croquet Game”

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the theme of outdoor games was extremely popular. English and French artists vied with each other to paint “pastorals” where the heroes were engrossed in a croquet competition. In 1873, Édouard Manet also painted a canvas on a sports theme – his famous “Croquet Game”. The impressionist’s painting depicts playing ladies and their companions, calmly watching or waiting for their turn. Its cost is unknown, but let us recall that Manet is listed among the most expensive artists in the world.

By the way, an interesting fact: one of the women depicted in the canvas is also present in other works by the master: “Railway”, “Olympia”, “Street Singer” and “Luncheon on the Grass” – one of the most scandalous works in history. This woman, Victoria Meurent, born into a family of a Parisian engraver, was Manet’s favorite model, posed for Thomas Couture and Edgar Degas.

Winslow Homer. “The Game of Croquet”

The famous artist who laid the foundation for the realistic style in America, Winslow Homer is best known for his canvases on military themes, as well as seascapes. However, he did not shy away from genre painting. Fans are familiar with his canvas “The Game of Croquet”, now kept in the Chicago Institute of Art.

William Patrick Roberts. Cubist “Chess Players”

The great English Cubist William Patrick Roberts is the author of one of the most controversial paintings in the world – the famous “Joke”.

The painting caused a sensation at the post-war Sotheby’s and was sold for £994,000. Although the artist mostly loved to paint portraits, he gained fame for “The Joke” and paintings on a sporting theme, including “The Chess Players”, which were bought for £1,100,000 a few years ago.

James Northcote and his mysterious “Chess Players”

One of the most mysterious “sports” paintings in the world belongs to the English master of the 18th-19th centuries James Northcote and is also dedicated to the game of chess. These are his magnificent “Chess Players”, whose theatrical atmosphere is mesmerizing, and the plot to this day causes fierce debate among experts – both art and other disciplines.

There are several versions of what is happening on the canvas, which depicts men playing an endgame. Thus, the famous computer design specialist, Professor Moriarty, analyzed the plot and expressed the opinion that each figure has its own allegory. Similar men of different ages and the shades of their clothes symbolize the passage of time and the continuity of generations, the dog – loyalty and nobility. The brocade curtain in the background is very reminiscent of an open theater curtain.

Alexander Deineka – the singer of socialist romanticism

The Soviet artist Alexander Deineka is an entire era in painting and sculpture. A student of Favorsky and Nivinsky, “a guy from the people” painted many canvases on a variety of topics. Among his works are landscapes, paintings with historical and revolutionary subjects, as well as many “sports” masterpieces in the style of socialist realism.

The dynamics, beauty of bodies and realism in his works are simply mesmerizing. The very first such work of the master is “Football”.

Others that came out later were “Relay Race”, “Baseball”, “Running”, the mosaic panel “Hockey Players” and many others like them.