Key Plate to W.H. Mason’s Drawing of a Cricket Match at Brighton, between the Counties of Sussex & Kent

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

This key was published to accompany the engraving ‘The Cricket Match between Sussex and Kent, at Brighton’ [GAC 7112].

When the main print was published in 1849 ‘The Era’ newspaper included a short piece in praise of the work, which explains that portraits of players are included with ‘noble and other gentlemen, patrons of the noble art of cricket. The portraits [are] all taken from life by Mr. W. Drummond and Mr. C. J. Basebe… Here and there one is conspicuously more athletic or tall than his fellows; such as [cricketer for Kent] A[lfred] Mynn, whose athletic proportions are exhibited by the absence of his coat, and the same may be said of N[icholas] Felix [also a cricketer for Kent], both of whom front a crowd of admirers in everyday apparel. In the play Messrs. E Wenham and Fuller Pilch are battling, and the former is about to strike, while Lilly White is in the act of bowling, and the picture is complete to the minutest particular... the print is fit to hang beside the choicest engravings, and is a gem ...’

Portrait painter William Drummond produced a series of portraits of women for the ‘Book of Beauty’ by Charles Theodosius Heath (1785-1848). He also painted portraits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and novelist William Makepeace Thackery. During the 1830s, Drummond lived at 1 Wellington Terrace, Waterloo Bridge; 15 Beaumont Buildings, Strand; and at 33 Newman Street. He exhibited two works at the Royal Academy, five at the British Institution and seven at the society of British Artists in Suffolk Street.
Charles Jones Basebe may have studied under English painter and writer George Dawe (1781-1829). He was best known as a miniature and portrait painter, and painted a number of portraits of cricketers, several of which are now in the collection at Lord’s Cricket Ground. He also painted a portrait of Prince Albert. Basebe lived in London and Brighton and exhibited 32 works at the Royal Academy and three at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street from 1835 to 1879. He died at his home in Islington in 1880.

Places

England, Sussex

Subjects

cricket, male portrait, text-based work

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

William Drummond
Charles Jones Basebe (c.1818 - 1880)
British 19th century unknown

Title

Key Plate to W.H. Mason’s Drawing of a Cricket Match at Brighton, between the Counties of Sussex & Kent

Date

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Frank T Sabin, July 1965

GAC number

7112A