Golf Pictures - By: michael russell

Some of the finest landscapes painted in the past century have been views of golf courses - both by renowned artists and amateurs alike - in some cases chosen through an interest in the sport itself and, in others, simply for the beauty in the eye of the beholder. There can be few vistas as breathtaking as a well-designed set of links, and these golf pictures appeal even to the least sporting amongst us.

A golf picture can often grace the walls of the formal drawing room in a stately home or the living-room of a semi-detached family home with equal ease.

Of course an unoccupied landscape is one thing, golf pictures depicting famous or even unknown individuals are another matter. When asked, during a rare lull in the volume of the conversation at a recent drinks party, who the subject of a very fetching portrait occupying a large area above the sofa might be, the hostess laughed and said she had no idea who the gentleman may have been. Although her husband’s golf pictures were usually less anonymous, he had not minded that nobody seemed to know who this chap was, because anyone who had cultivated a moustache of such fabulous proportions deserved a place in posterity!

It was quite a moustache, admittedly, and the portrait was otherwise pleasing too - leaning on a wonderfully old-fashioned looking iron - a mashie, perhaps, or a niblick? - our hero, with one hand shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, was gazing towards the spire of a typical English country village church while, just beyond the periphery of his gaze, a caddy dressed in the manner of an eighteenth-century lackey was gathering up the rest of his clubs and preparing to accompany his master to wherever the ball landed. Indeed, on closer scrutiny, one could just make out the golf ball as it flew towards a point some two hundred yards away from the front of the picture.

At the end of the same sofa was another striking item in a collection of framed golf pictures that served to make this home both handsome and memorable. Called ‘The Triumvirate’, this beautifully mounted and framed picture depicted three stars of British golf of the Edwardian Era. Painted by Clement Fowler in 1913, just before the outbreak of the first World War would change the face of Britain for ever, it shows one gentleman in plus-fours and knee socks, who has clearly just driven the ball with some energy towards an unseen point to the left of the picture. Two other gentlemen, one standing, the other seated, are gazing in the same direction and, far in the distant background, is the R & A clubhouse, establishing their whereabouts as the Old Course at St. Andrews.

One does not need to have any interest in the sport at all to enjoy such wonderful golf pictures, since they are like windows into a glorious past - and yet, as in few other sports, such scenes could still be enjoyed today, at golf courses all over the world, were it not for some major differences in clothing fashions!

As I was enjoying the latter picture, the hostess came by to top up my glass and I asked where she and her husband had come by such wonderful golf pictures as these. The chap with the moustache, she told me, had been acquired at auction as part of a group of sporting pictures.

The Triumvirate was, she told me, her latest birthday present to her spouse, ordered online, on the deserved recommendation of a friend. She had, she said, been able to choose the ideal mount and frame, pay for her purchase and get the computer closed down before her husband had time to notice that she wasn’t in her usual armchair, so that her gift came as a total and delightful surprise to him. Being very interested in acquiring similar golf pictures for my own living room, I managed to persuade her to divulge the source of this excellent choice of birthday gift.

About the Author

The Lordprice Collection in London, England, at www.lordprice.co.uk, has a vast collection of framed pictures of vintage sporting subjects, and others such as classic fashion pictures. Unusual and interesting golf pictures can be found here to suit any room or environment.

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