Christy Mathewson

Listing No: 11343

Other Images

  • CFORB-21444 recto with frame.jpg
  • CFORB-21444 sig.jpg
  • CFORB-21444 verso.jpg

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Valley House Gallery

Dallas, TX

Valley House Gallery

6616 Spring Valley Road

Dallas, TX 75254

972-239-2441
[email protected]

Please have the item listing number on hand when you call. This artwork's listing number is: 11343

Artwork Info

FAE Listing No:
11343
Artist:
Bart Forbes (1939-)
Title:
Christy Mathewson
Date of Work:
1988
Signature:
Bart Forbes
Signature Notes:
at lower right
Where Produced:
Dallas, Texas, TX, USA
Presentation:
Framed with Glazing

Artwork Medium

Type:
Drawing
Sub Type:
Mixed Technique
Medium:
Charcoal
Support:
on Paper Panel
Medium Notes:
Charcoal and watercolor wash

Artwork Size & Weight

Primary:
19.5 x 15.5 in. (Sight Size)
Outer Dimensions:
23.5 x 19.5 in. (Frame Outer Dimension)

Artwork Surface

Texture:
Flat
Surface Reflectivity:
Even - Matte

Artwork Condition

Condition:
Excellent.

Artwork Provenance

Provenance:
Directly from Bart Forbes.

About this Piece

As an illustrator, Bart Forbes is commissioned to create oil paintings and watercolors of a specific theme or subject to be reproduced in a magazine article, added to a brochure, or made into a poster to promote or commemorate an event. The mixed-media offered here is the original artwork that Bart Forbes created for one of these projects.

"Christy Mathewson was the first great pitching star of the modern era, and is still the standard by which greatness is measured. He changed the way people perceived baseball players by his actions on and off the field. His combination of power and poise – his tenacity and temperance – remains baseball’s ideal.

Born Aug. 12, 1880 in Factoryville, Pa., Mathewson attended Bucknell University and played on the school’s baseball and football teams. He signed his first pro baseball contract in 1899 – a rarity for a college-educated player in that era – and in 1900 went from the New York Giants to the Cincinnati Reds and back to the Giants in a round of deals that included a trade for future Hall of Fame pitcher Amos Rusie.

Using his famous 'fadeaway' pitch – what today would be called a screwball – the 6-foot-1, 185-pound right-hander baffled batters with pinpoint control. Mathewson won 20 games in his first full big league season in 1901, posted at least 30 wins a season from 1903-05 and led the National League in strikeouts five times between 1903 and 1908.
He set a modern era record for wins by an NL pitcher with 37 in 1908, a year when he completed 34 of his 44 starts en route to more than 390 innings pitched.

In the postseason, Mathewson pitched three shutouts in three starts in the 1905 World Series. 'He could pitch into a tin cup,' said Hall of Fame second baseman Johnny Evers.

From 1903-14, Mathewson never won fewer than 23 games in a season and led the NL in ERA five times.
As his career wound down, Mathewson was traded back to the Reds in 1916, finishing his career on Sept. 4 of that year in a matchup against longtime rival Three Finger Brown. In 17 seasons, Mathewson finished with 373 wins against just 188 losses – a figure that leaves him tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for the most wins in NL history and third-most all-time.

In 1918, Mathewson enlisted in the Army during World War I. While serving as a captain in France, he was accidentally gassed during a training exercise. He spent the next seven years battling tuberculosis and died on Oct. 7, 1925.

He was one of the first five players elected to the Hall of Fame in 1936.

'He had knowledge, judgment, perfect control and form,' said Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack of Mathewson. 'It was wonderful to watch him pitch – when he wasn’t pitching against you.'"

“Christy Mathewson.” Baseball Hall of Fame, 25 Oct. 2017, https://baseballhall.org/hof/mathewson-christy

About the Artist

Bart Forbes

Bart Forbes was born on July 3, 1939 in Altus, OK, and is a painter and renowned illustrator.

Bart Forbes is best known as an illustrator specializing in the field of Sports. So far in his career as an illustrator, Forbes has won over 55 Awards of Excellence from the New York Society of Illustrators and has been commissioned many times over by several big names in industry and media, including: Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, Eastman Kodak, Pepsi-Cola, American Airlines and ABC Television. Named the 1986 Sports Artist of the Year by the U.S. Sports Academy, Forbes was selected by the Olympic Committee as the official artist for the 1988 Summer Olympics. Forbes has designed over 20 commemorative postage stamps, including the Lou Gehrig and Jesse Owens commemoratives, "The Olympians" and the "America the Beautiful" series, and, most recently, he was commissioned to create the Ronald Reagan stamp. He also designed commemorative posters for the Boston and New York Marathons, Indianapolis 500, America's Cup and 1994 Winter Olympics. Forbes is best known for his golfing images and received much acclaim for his portraits of history's thirty greatest golfers. Having done theme paintings for a variety of PGA and Seniors tournaments, Forbes was tapped in 1994 to create theme art for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am for two years running.

Forbes was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2017, undoubtedly the highest honor bestowed on artists in the field of illustration.

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