The London Amateur Boxing Championship held at the Royal Albert Hall, 1948

Details

Alfred Reginald Thomson (1894-1979)
The London Amateur Boxing Championship held at the Royal Albert Hall, 1948
signed 'Thomson' (lower left); and signed 'A.R. Thomson' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
46 x 35 in. (116.8 x 88.9 cm.)

Exhibited

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Olympic Association, XIV Olympiad: Exhibition of Sport in Art, July - August 1948, no. 178.
National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes, 1949, no. 548.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

The XIV Olympiad in London in 1948 placed great emphasis on both sport and the arts as platforms for competition and excellence. The present lot and lot 157 were both entered in the Paintings section of the Olympiad and were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Apart from Painting, medals were awarded in the following categories: Architecture, Graphic Arts, Sculpture, Craft and Art Applique, Literature and Music. Works submitted under each category were required to have a sporting theme.
Thomson's painting was awarded a Gold Medal for Painting at the 1948 Olympiad, making Thomson the last artist to receive a medal for Art at the Olympics - the practice was abandoned after 1948.

Walter Hutchinson, who owned the painting, was the founder of the National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes.

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