We have advised in the past of our friend Alastair Loudon’s The Gentry Links Trilogy and his Sequel.
Here is a recent commentary from Mr. Loudon that we thought our clients and friends might enjoy seeing:
The Origins of the Ryder Cup
Gentry Links’ further exploration of iconic golf art
By Alastair Loudon
One of America’s best-known realist artists, Edward Hopper (1882-1967), once said ‘If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint’: a statement that became axiomatic, and nowhere more evident in twentieth century golf art than in the work of the celebrated British portrait artist, Anthony Oakshett.
In 1994, Anthony painted a magnificent image that reflects the scene at the Wentworth Club in 1926 when the team of golfers, who would become the first Ryder Cup Team of Great Britain in 1927, took on a group of golfers from America who had travelled to Britain to play in The Open Championship. The scene depicted was the second of two informal matches that gave rise to the inaugural Ryder Cup matches played at Worcester Country Club, Massachusetts. The portentous comment attributable to Samuel Ryder at Wentworth was ‘we must do this again’. As the saying goes … the rest is history…
This painting forms part of what the artist terms his ‘Large Scale Collection’1 which also includes a famous image created for The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2004. The artist also created an exact replica of The Golfers for the Cheape family when the original of golf’s greatest icon was purchased in 2002, with R&A assistance, by National Galleries of Scotland.
In The Origins of the Ryder Cup, which is currently owned by, and hung at, the Wentworth Club, Anthony Oakshett did so much more than capture the essence of a significant golf event that will shortly celebrate its centenary. In the same way as the famous Scottish artists who created iconic golf art of the 19th century, he used a golfing scene to include characters who each contributed to the story of the evolution of golf.
I was fascinated by the Wentworth painting and decided to explore it in the same way that I had examined the 19th century icons of golf art2 by digging deep beneath the surface of the canvas. What I found were miniature portraits of the characters who took the evolution of the modern game from its coming of age in the 1890s to reaching its maturity a generation later. This maturity was evidenced in many ways. For example, the artist included The Triumvirate of J.H. Taylor, James Braid and Harry Vardon (portrayed in the famous 1913 Clement Fowler painting that is hung in The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews), as well as the Champion Golfers of the Year from two distinct eras: before and after World War I.
This led to the creation of The Gentry Links Sequel. But this time, I was operating in a totally different environment, as I was able to ask the artist whether my interpretation of the painting was fair and reasonable, which I am very happy to say he felt that it was. So, I completed a 44 page, illustrated, booklet of the highest quality. Having done so, I was extremely honoured to have the highly acclaimed and prize-winning American golf historian, Rand Jerris, Ph.D., write the Foreword. In it he said:
‘In this fine publication, Alastair Loudon once again encourages us to turn to a work of art- – Anthony Oakshett’s The Origins of the Ryder Cup 1926 (completed in 1994) – to enrich our understanding of golf history. In this instance, visual imagery serves as critical evidence for the evolving status of professional golf, both in Britain and America, in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Continuing his earlier methodology, Alastair leverages the foundational concept of artistic choice, this time enhanced by first-person description from the artist, to illuminate deeper meanings in the richly detailed historical composition.
The Gentry Links Sequel…From Golf’s Coming of Age to its Maturity is an important reminder that we, as scholars and lovers of the game, must cast broad nets in finding textual sources and visual images to illuminate the sport’s rich and enchanting history. In so many ways, golf is a beautiful game. The art that golf has inspired is no less remarkable.’
Anthony told me that to celebrate the centenary of the 1926 event at Wentworth, and the centenary of the inaugural Ryder Cup in 2027, he would be producing Limited-Edition prints of his painting, and that he wanted to include The Gentry Links Sequel with each Limited-Edition print to be sold. So, a partnership was born, but one that evolved in a way that I could not have considered possible in my wildest dreams. I was chatting to Anthony one day and told him that I was having difficulty in finding the appropriate images to illustrate my storyline. Without hesitation Anthony then said he would paint three images for the Sequel to precisely illustrate the scenes that I had in my mind’s eye. And so, he has. These illustrations are each worth more than 1,000 words!
Two of these images focus on Walter Hagen: one as The Champion Golfer of the Year and the other symbolically illustrating the social status of a professional golfer in the social hierarchy of gentlemen’s Golf Clubs of Britain in the ‘Roaring 20s’. Anthony was also very particular in wanting to include two of the leading lady golfers – Joyce Wethered and Molly Gourlay, who were amongst the trailblazers in taking the women’s game to its maturity. He captured the prominence of these two ladies by creating an image of them walking down the first fairway of the Old Course at St Andrews, with all the symbolism embedded in that image. Anthony’s illustrations are unique works of golf art in their own right, never before released to the public. His contribution considerably enhances the The Gentry Links Sequel, but, more widely, serves the game of golf in an incalculable way.
The Gentry Links Sequel will be distributed with the Limited Edition prints of The Origins of The Ryder Cup and also in conjunction with purchases of The Gentry Links Trilogy 3 ordered at The Bookstore of Grant Books Ltd
2 (1)The First Meeting of North Berwick Golf Club, 1832; (2) The Golfers: A Grand Match Played Over the Links of St Andrews on the Day of the Annual Meeting of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club, 1847; and (3) Captain Driving Off (also known as Medal Day, 1894) .
3 Gentry Links … The Great Men of ‘The Golfers’ (2019); North Berwick, 1832 … and its Gentry Links (2021); and Gentry Links to the Modern Game … The Bigger Picture (2023).
Best regards,
D. M. Wilson, III
Publisher
Grant Books Ltd
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