Display caption
Cricket Match at Christchurch, c.1850
Attributed to Thomas Musgrave Joy (1812-1866)
MCC Collection: bequeathed by Sir Jeremiah Colman, 1947
Oil on canvas
TN.2009.2373
A naïve depiction of a match in progress on Stanpit Marsh outside the town of Christchurch, with the Augustine Priory Church and Christchurch Castle in the background. The players are shown wearing white trousers and hooped shirts and a sociable crowd rings the boundary. The attribution of this painting has been the subject of much debate. Seen in the foreground, a gentleman in a brown frock-coat carries a basket over his left arm bearing the word “JOY”. This, it has been suggested, was Thomas Joy’s method of signing the painting. As well as being a noted society portraitist, Joy also painted a famous sporting scene depicting a bloodstock auction at Tattersall’s. However, the style of the Christchurch painting is less polished than Joy’s and recent research by the Christchurch History Society suggests that the man with the basket may be a local pub landlord, Edward Joy, and the painting itself the work of a local artist.
