Lot 20: John Burr, RBA, ROI, ARWS (Scottish, 1831-1893) A game of cricket

John Burr, RBA, ROI, ARWS (Scottish, 1831-1893)
A game of cricket
signed 'A Burr' (lower left)
oil on canvas
44 x 65cm (17 5/16 x 25 9/16in).

with The Fine Art Society, London, September 1977
Sale, Phillips London, 18 September 1978, lot 144, sold for £7,500
Private collection, UK

John Burr began his artistic career at the age of fourteen painting portraits of the gentry. He enrolled at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh and along with his younger brother, Alexander Hohenlohe Burr (1835–1899), built a reputation as two of Scotland's leading artists. They stayed in Edinburgh until 1861 when both brothers moved to London. John first exhibited at The Royal Academy the following year. Both brothers would go on to enjoy prosperous careers, with John perfecting the humorous genre picture so redolent of the high Victorian period. This painting shows his natural feeling for genre pictures, and is also an amusing insight into the amateur roots of the game of cricket.