Footnotes

• Provenance:
  Christie's South Kensington, Cricket and Sport, Friday 9th October 1987, lot 106.
  Sir Paul Getty.
  Brian Johnston.
  
  Exhibited:
  Henry Scott Tuke Exhibition, Falmouth Art Gallery, 27th March- 19th May 1989.
  
  Illustrated: Maria Tuke Sainsbury, 'Henry Scott Tuke; A Memoir', 1933, opp. p.144.
  A Portrait of W.G. Grace by Henry Scott Tuke R.A., R.W.S.
  
  Henry Scott Tuke R.A., R.W.S. (1858 – 1929.)
  
  Henry Scott Tuke studied at the Slade School of Art, London, Florence and in Paris 1881-1883 with Jean-Paul Laurens. In 1883 he returned to England and settled in Cornwall initially in Newlyn and from 1885 in Falmouth. Tuke is regarded as one of the more prominent members of the Newlyn school of painting, which flourished from 1880’s to 1930’s. His subject matter was the life of these fishing communities, which he shared with other Newlyn artists like Stanhope Alexander Forbes and Walter Langley. Technically he is regarded as one of the founders of British Impressionist painting, using stronger, brighter colours and broadly applied paint. He used these techniques to great advantage in his favourite subject matter, the nude, painted out of doors.
  He exhibited widely in London and was a founder member of the New English Art Society in 1886, and became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1914. Throughout his career he had a successful practice as a portrait painter.
  
  Through his friendship with the pioneer sports photographer and amateur cricketer George Bedlam, Tuke met many of the leading cricketers of the day during the early 1900`s. In 1908 he was invited to Shillinglee Park, the summer residence of the Indian prince and English batsman Ranjitsinghi, to paint the portrait of its owner in his princely robes. At dinner there one evening, Dr W.G. Grace was persuaded to put on “Ranji`s” turban and was painted wearing it by Tuke the following day.
  Tuke also painted a more formal portrait of Grace, as well as his fellow cricketer F.R. Stofforth, both of these are now at Lords. The artist’s sister quotes from his diary that on May 19th “At dinner Ranji-Singi bound a turban, red and gold, on old W.G., who looked magnificent in it for the rest of the meal”, on May 20th, “After lunch W.G sat for me for ¼ hour in turban until he had to go in” (to bat). (Memoir p144) A Memoir of the artist was written by Maria Tuke Sainsbury, covering daily entries his diary over a 50-year period, published 1933. The painting was given to Brian Johnston, the famous cricket commentator by the late Paul Getty.