James Stroudley
(1906 - 1985)
The Games, c.1930–33
James Stroudley (1906 - 1985)
Size:
Height – 167cm
Width – 279cm
Conceived while Stroudley was studying at the British School at Rome as the Abbey Major Scholar, from 1930 to 1933, The Games represents Stroudley’s Magnum Opus from his formative Rome Scholarship years. During this time he was encouraged to study classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance, influences that shaped many of the works he produced there.
The composition reflects the classical revival spirit of the period, with idealized athletes arranged in a balanced, monumental design reminiscent of ancient friezes. Stroudley was particularly inspired by the structure and calm clarity of Renaissance masters such as Piero della Francesca and Giotto. Athletic subjects allowed him to explore the movement and form of the human body while linking modern sport to the ideals of ancient Greek athletics. He was also likely to have been influenced by Degas’s monumental Young Spartans Exercising, circa 1860, acquired for the National Gallery through the Courtauld Fund in 1924.
Painter, printmaker and teacher, he was born and lived in London. He studied at Clapham School of Art, 1923-27, and at the Royal College of Art, 1927-30. Stroudley was the first Abbey Major Scholar, 1930-3, which afforded him three years’ traveling in Italy. Thus his main influences were classic Italian painters, notably Giotto and Piero della Francesca, although from the late 1930s his work was increasingly influenced by Cubism. He became a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. He showed at the RA, the RBA, of which he was made a member in 1934, and the RE. Arthur Tooth and Apollinaire Gallery gave him solo exhibitions and public collections in Bradford, Brighton, Coventry and Rochdale hold examples of his work.
His compositions from his Rome period are among the last wholly successful decorative cycles produced by a Rome Scholar prior to World War II. His drawings from the period are technically brilliant and bear comparison with those of Eric Kennington. During the post-war era he moved increasingly towards abstraction.
