One of the most iconic cricket photographs
Victor Trumper
1905.
Original photogravure on paper, created for Beldam, from a photograph taken at The Oval in 1905. Signed by Trumper in pencil at the bottom right and by Beldam in the bottom left. 301 x 377mm (image size). Fine condition.
One of the most iconic of all cricket photographs. George Beldam, a cricketer himself, became noted as an Edwardian photographer, with a particular talent for taking action photographs of sportsmen, at a time when the vast majority of all sporting photos were posed. Beldam, instantly recognised this image as a potential classic and had The Sun Electric Engraving Company create some 500 photogravures from his original photograph, which he had signed by its subject.
"Beldam's Trumper, in composition and content, is a very great photograph. It is both the first and last word in batting, insofar as batting consists of making instinctive what begins as a set of quite unnatural motions. In this image Trumper seems to achieve the complete reconciliation of the orthodox and the spontaneous, the rehearsed and the original, the conscious and the unconscious. His shirt seems both loose and taut; his arms appear both gloriously free and tensed for action; the stroke is both instantly recognisable and uniquely his." - Gideon Haigh (A Stroke of Genius)
Copies signed by Beldam are rare.
Stock ID: 44178
£2,500.00
