Football Art sadly still is a poorly understood and barely recognised genre. LFA can show both why, and the remedy, drawing on both famous, less known and new material from around the world.
LFA reflects the Art genres and the print and publishing revolution from late Georgian times. The development of colour processes, from early lithography through to modern newsprint illustrates the emergence of mass production and mass media for public consumption. A number of exciting finds and acquisitions have been made in recent years making new and original exhibits available.
Here are some further examples of artworks in the Langton collections now and in the past. Most are available for exhibition as originals or High resolution image.
Jacques Callot 1617
Calcio Piazza Santa Croce, Venice.
Etching, 78 x 52 mm
Jacques Callot began work in Florence from 1612 at the Medici court, where he was employed to draw and engrave illustrations of events and of society, from the poorest, to the local dignitaries. Here a drummer sets up a rhythm near the Piazza Santa Croce as a backbeat to the calcio game. Perhaps to attract more people, and garner more awareness of the well-attended spectacle.
Next, over a century later in 1838 the game is more elaborate and well attended:
Giuseppe Zocchi, print by Carlo Gregori 1774
From: Scelta di XXIV Vedute delle principali contrade, piazze, chiese, e palazzi della Città di Firenze. Plate 24: View of the church and the piazza of Santa Croce in Florence on the occasion of the festival of the Calcio in 1738.
Etching with engraving, hand coloured 680 x 504 mm
In England we have Thomas Webster’s little preparatory sketch for his larger painting, of young children playing ‘kick and rush’ school football in a Kent village, engravings of which made it probably the most printed image of football in the 19th century. Original is a part of the FIFA-Langton collection owned by the National Football Museum Trust
Isaac Robert Cruikshank 1823
The Golden Football and the modern Danae
Published by: John Fairburn, London
Hand coloured etching 348 x 250 mm
Maria Mercandotti, in ballet dress a 16 year old Spanish opera singer kneels, holding up her skirt to catch a round (apocryphal) gold ball, at which three women are kicking. The crowd outside the opera house have been deprived of their new idol, by an aristocrat the wealthy Hughes Ball taking her off to get married, leaving the London theatre goers sitting before an empty stage. Golden balls 200 years ago!
Thomas Webster 1839
A football game (preparatory)
Oil on canvass, 320 x 150 mm
