James Sant, R.A.

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James', London, SW1Y 6BU STRUCTURAL CONDITION The canvas has been lined onto a keyed wooden stretcher and this is ensuring an even and secure structural support. with the original inlaid Victorian backboard. This is ensuring a secure and stable structural support. PAINT SURFACE The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of scattered retouchings, the majority of which are thin lines, mostly vertical, covering small loses which I assume are from when the canvas has been rolled. There are two larger areas of inpainting in the background to the left of the figure, one upper left by his right shoulder and the other in the lower left. There are other scattered retouchings. SUMMARY The painting is therefore in stable condtion and no further work is required. It should be noted that a number of retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light but not visible in natural light.
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‘What is human life, but a game of cricket?’ (John Frederick Sackville, 3^rd Duke of Dorset, 1797)

There are few more classically English paintings than those which reference cricket – a sport embedded in the fabric of English life. As far back as 1300 there is the mention of playing ‘Creag’, a possible allusion from a historical manuscript. In art, cricket too has a long tradition, a form of bat and ball appearing in stained glass windows in Canterbury and Gloucester Cathedrals from the 12^th and 14^th centuries. However, it was not until the 18^th century that the representation of cricket matches and individuals became properly established, coinciding with the professionalization of painting in England - William Hogarth being one of the most significant figures in bringing about this change. With a new generation of English artists emerging, it was only natural that the game should increasingly come to be depicted, and it has since featured in the work of some of England’s finest painters, including J.W.M. Turner, Joseph Wright of Derby, George Frederick Watts and Ford Maddox Brown. Philip Calderon's portrait of a determined young boy at the crease in Captain of the Eleven, 1882, became an iconic image when Pears soap used it for their advertising at the close of the 19th century (sold Bonhams, 11 July 2012, lot 66, £289,500).

From the same period, Portrait of a Young Cricketer is another exceptional and evocative cricketing portrait. James Sant was a highly regarded artist of his day,  appointed portrait painter to Queen Victoria in 1872. He enjoyed the patronage of many noble and landed families and while it has not been possible to trace the identity of the young boy here, it likely to have been commissioned from such a family. It stands by itself as a fine and characterful portrait, the boy’s face and detailing of his clothes superbly rendered, but the cricketing element makes it all the more appealing. The blue silk tie and smart brown shoes may appear at odds with today’s cricketers, but the overall representation remains familiar in contrast to earlier examples. Individuals were once depicted in very fashionable attire in contrast to the cricketing whites of the present work; they held large bats which extended well above the waist and the wickets consisted of two low stumps rather than the now conventional three – indicators of how the game has evolved. A portrait by Edward Penny, R.A., Sir William Bent of Fareham, c.1743-4 (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle) is a notable early example.

Typical of cricketing portraits, the boy in the present work is elegantly posed and presented very much as a young gentleman. With a cross-legged stance and an arched-back he adopts a pose common in fashionable portraiture, seen going back to the work of Ramsay, Reynolds, Cotes and Gainsborough, which itself derived from classical antiquity representations greatly admired by 18^th century artists, particularly the figure of Mercury in Uffizi, Florence and the figure of a Faun with Pipes now in the Louvre.

From around 1820-60 the large scale cricket portrait fell out of fashion, but was revived when cricket became, as Robert Simon and Alastair Smart commented, ‘part of the public school, imperial and chilvaric ethos’ of the Victorian age (The Art of Cricket, 1983, p.49). On the cricket field, boys were seen to learn the virtues, courage and discipline which would prepare them for the wider challenges of life. An excellent example is Henry Garland’s The Winner of the Match, 1864 (MCC Collection), in which a boy-hero of a cricket match is held aloft by his teammates in triumph, admired by young and old alike – there is the strong suggestion that the boy will face the lists of life as successfully. In Portrait of a Young Cricketer, there too is this sense, his elegant post and fine features appearing to embody the noble ideals of the Victorian age.