The Rules of the Game as Seen in Early Twentieth Century French Art
On a recent trip to the National Gallery in Washington D.C., one work piqued my interest. It, of course, had to do with soccer.
The work is called “Football Players” and was done by the French painter Albert Gleizes in 1912 or 1913. It is done in a cubist style (nothing beats Wikipedia for quickly acquiring knowledge and allowing me to avoid sounding like the art ignoramus that I truly am), seen below.
On seeing the painting and its title, my friend Hope asked a very logical question: is that football or soccer? After all, she said, they are using their hands.
Until last week, I would not have known, but it just happens that I am at the point in David Golblatt’s exhaustive history of soccer, The Ball is Round, to answer Hope’s question.
Goldblatt tells us that soccer in pre-World War I France had to compete against the already established sport of rugby. “Of the winter sports played, rugby was not merely the equal of football in terms of participation but in terms of participation and spectator-appeal marginally its superior” (154).
And as in many countries that played both rugby and soccer at this time, the rules that governed the two were often not clearly defined. Even though the split between rugby and soccer rules had already occurred in 1871, games between teams who played both games persisted. Goldblatt notes that “many teams often chose to play more than one code, often during the same game” (32). This overlapping of rules existed on the continent as well as in the UK.
So, while the title indicates that Gleizes was clearly painting football players, the game they were playing might also have involved aspects of what we know today as rugby. The player in the center of the painting running with the ball in his hands gives a clear indication that the “handball” had not been made illegal.
Another French painting of this same era shows that handling was quite common in the French football of that time. The subjects in Henri Rousseau’s 1908 painting The Football Players are also involved in a game with great differences from the current rules of the sport.
Just ten years after Rousseau painted his football players, another French painter’s work shows how the rules of soccer were becoming more defined. Painted at the end or just after World War, André Lohte’s 1918 Les Footballeurs shows a game with players clearly following today’s soccer rules more closely
The clear demarcation of rules of the new game that occurred around this time enabled “football [to] acquire national coverage and a significant place in the national culture” (159) of France. These three paintings offer an artistic representation of the split in rules which made soccer more easily recognizable, and more popular in early twentieth century France.
February 20th, 2007 20:49
Spring training for baseball, the best sport, just started! Just a fyi for everyone out there who just got back from a trip to Mars. Griffey, I’m ready for your return to Seatown in June! I’m getting hyped, the countdown is on.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/304348_moore20.html (Article on Griffey)
Good luck to all those American soccer players, we’re coming for the cup in 2010.
February 20th, 2007 22:51
Love how you’ve integrated art, football, & history David. I’d love to find a print of Les Footballeurs. My first reaction to that one is surprise, really. After the four year bloodbath that Europe suffered through, I wouldn’t have expected to see a painting that depicted something as normal as football. Maybe it reflects the yearning for pre-war pastimes. Nice work.
February 21st, 2007 12:41
Nice article. The roots of football(soccer) go way back to medieval times. It was basically one town vs another. The objective was to get your ball (not very round back then) back to your town or base, by any means necessary. The two schools, rugby and footy eventually evolved in parallel, but always intermingling depending on tradition at the time. The rule that created the beautiful game, as we know it, is recent as the article points out.
February 25th, 2007 09:38
Susan - Thanks for your comment on my article. I went to the National Gallery with no intention of writing this and just came across the piece. And with a little research on other artwork of the time combined with my reading of Goldblatt’s book, the post wrote itself. And thanks for continuing to read my blog!
February 25th, 2007 09:45
Luis - Are you referring to the Uppies and Downies game played on the Orkney Islands? Goldblatt does mention it. Or it could be the ancient game of Calcio played in Florence. Goldblatt’s book discusses many of these ancient games, including other games played outside of Europe.