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Portrait of Sir Garfield Sobers



Date:
1992
Object Number:
M.1992.45
Creator
Sarah Raphael (artist)
Production reason
Commission
Production notes
Painted from life in the Secretariat at Lord’s Cricket Ground
Material
oil on canvas
Size
53 x 63 cm
Object name
painting
Object category
pictures

Description

Three quarter length, frontal portrait of the retired West Indian all-rounder sitting by the window in the MCC Secretariat at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Wearing a maroon West Indies blazer.

Display caption

Painted entirely form life wearing his West Indies blazer, former captain ‘Gary’ Sobers is depicted by artist Sarah Raphael in the quiet confines of the MCC Secretariat at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Raphael was a traditional figurative and portrait painter who painted from life in a naturalistic style. However, in this portrait Sobers’ hands are shown strangely magnified. This unusual distortion may be a reference to Sobers’ birth defect that left him with an extra figure on each hand (removed at birth). Just three years after this portrait was completed Raphael moved away from the traditional portraiture that dominated her career, to produce disorientating and brightly coloured abstract works partly inspired by cartoons.
Association:
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers (sitter)
Sarah Raphael (artist)
Related objects:
TN.2009.2554 : Sir Garfield Sobers
TN.2009.869 : Sir. Garry Sobers
MCC/AAL/2/TEMP487 : Portraits
MCC/AAL/2/TEMP611 : Insurance