Robert Sherriffs, Original Watercolour Of Legendary Cricket Commentator, Sir Neville Cardus Playing The Piano,1944

In General
This charming, unusual and rare original watercolour by the famous caricaturist Robert Sherriffs is of the legendary cricket correspondent and music critic Sir Neville Cardus (1888 -1975).  This remarkable man became The Manchester Guardian's renowned cricket correspondent in 1919 and its chief music critic in 1927.  He held those two posts simultaneously until 1940 – an unusual feat in itself.  He continued back with the Manchester Guardian in the later 1940s but as a music critic alone.

Freddie Flintoff, often referenced Sir Neville Cardus's writings and his love for cricket. Flintoff has spoken about how Cardus's rhapsodic vision of the game, particularly his quote "There can be no summer in this land without cricket," resonated with him deeply.

Amazingly, Sir Neville had once seen W G Grace (about whom he often referred in his writings) in person as a semi-retired cricketer although he must have been relatively young as the great W G died in 1915.

His contributions to the two very distinct fields of cricket and music in the years before the Second World War established his reputation as one of the foremost critics of his generation.  Such was his appeal that he became essential reading for a great number of people including many who were not natural Guardian readers but who bought the paper for his articles alone.

Even though it was for his cricket expertise that he was best known, in fact he saw his musical criticism as being his principle vocation.  As he successfully managed to straddle both the cricketing and musical worlds, he could count among his close friends world-renowned conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir John Barbirolli, the contralto Kathleen Ferrier and the “peerless” Sir Donald Bradman.

This work is an original water colour and a personal caricature given to Sir Neville in 1944 during the Second World War and signed with Robert Sherriffs’ distinctive signature “WITH SINCERE REGARDS SHERRIFFS 44” and is in that respect alone a rarity. Unusually it is fully water coloured whereas Sherriffs generally used pen and ink.

Oddly, Sir Neville was himself a caricaturist – so here we have a caricaturist being caricatured by a caricaturist!

Cardus and Cricket
In his writing, Cardus changed what had traditionally been a rather prosaic manner of reporting to a more imaginative, descriptive and evocative form of writing about cricket – engaging the reader with not only what he saw but also how he experienced it.  John Arlott described Cardus as "the creator of modern cricket writing”.

Although primarily a correspondent rather than a player, he did play the game for some years.  First playing on waste land close to his home in Rusholme Manchester, as he matured, he developed as an effective medium-paced off break bowler (a rather forgotten style now), and for several seasons from 1908 onwards played as a weekend professional in Manchester league cricket.

Please see in photographs, an image of Sir Neville in a rare appearance playing for an MCC side at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the 1936-37 Ashes tour – widely considered a great series – with Don Bradman on the Australian side. (Attribution Photograph: Popperfoto via Getty Images)

Sir Neville wrote many books. He covered ”the glorious game” during the time of such legends as Woolley, Ranjitsinhji, Rhodes, Trumper,  Hutton, Bradman and Larwood.  “Cardus on Cricket” features a range of writings from 'Cricket', 'Days in the Sun', 'The Summer Game', 'Good Days', 'Australian Summer' and 'The Manchester Guardian'.

Finally, a memorable cricket quote by Sir Neville: “There ought to be some other means of reckoning quality in this the best and loveliest of games; the scoreboard is an ass. Neville Cardus.”

Cardus and Music
As the Manchester Guardian’s chief music critic, he wrote many reviews and according to his contemporary critic Hugo Cole was, surprisingly, "the last distinguished music critic never to have received formal musical training....he was a writer first, and a music critic second".  Nevertheless, despite this lack of formal education, it did not stop him expressing his own views which were at times contrary to popular and critical opinion and created frictions when he stuck with them.

Despite this, he was a proficient pianist earning multiple certificates and diplomas in piano playing and music theory from, amongst others, the London College of Music, Trinity College of Music London, the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music.

Sir Neville wrote eight books on music.  In these essays, Cardus writes of his love for the great composers.

Here is a lovely example of Cardus’s completely individual way of expressing himself about music: “‘Even an ordinary broken chord is made to disclose rare beauties; we are reminded of the fairies’ hazelnuts in which diamonds were concealed but you could break the shell only if your hands were blessed.’

Robert Stewart (“Bob”) Sherriffs (1906-1960) caricaturist and cartoonist

The famous Caricaturist and cartoonist Robert Sherriffs (born Arbroath Scotland and the son of a flax merchant) attended Edinburgh College of Art where he studied heraldic design as well as fine art.  He was influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha. He later found that the discipline of heraldic composition could be well adapted to caricature.

After a caricature of actor John Barrymore in the Bystander was spotted by Beverley Nichols, he was commissioned to illustrate the 'Woad' series of celebrity profiles Nichols wrote in the Sketch. Thereafter, due to their success, Sheriffs produced regular full-page theatre and film drawings for the Sketch.  Subsequently, he contributed drawings to the Radio Times as well as illustrating a number of books. He also wrote the comic novel Salute if You Must (1944).  He worked as film caricaturist on Punch from 1948 until 1960 often making the caricatures of famous film stars.

His work is represented in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Comment on provenance 
We think this caricature may well not have been seen for many years as it was found in an old style rather battered picture frame of a type used more than half a century ago.  The frame had no especial charm so we have replaced it with a professionally mounted new frame which we think shows off this characterful and interesting work of art much better.

Artist's Signature
Signed by the artist, Robert Sherriffs’ with his distinctive signature “WITH SINCERE REGARDS SHERRIFFS 44” on the front of the painting on the bottom right hand corner.

Year
1944

Condition
The painting has been professionally mounted in a brand new oak frame with a black mount. Please note that the two brown marks on the top of the caricature are not foxing. The hanging wire on the back of the original frame was held by 2 metal clasps and the metal has left 2 marks on the front of the painting.

Dimensions L x W x H
Frame: 67 cm x 2 cm x 57 cm or 28.37 x 0.78 x 22,44 inches
Painting: 39 cm x 29 cm or 15.35 x 11.41 inches

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Condition report:

The painting has been professionally mounted in a brand new oak frame with a black mount. Please note that the two brown marks on the top of the caricature are not foxing. The hanging wire on the back of the original frame was held by 2 metal clasps and the metal has left 2 marks on the front of the painting.