Left: The 9th green by Arthur Weaver
Below: From Left to right,
Steve Lotus, Janye Jamison from the
ICA Art Conservation Centre, and Gregg Krusoe
Bottom:
The missing links by T. Chaulms
9th green from 1956, the year that Peter Thomson won The Open here. A print of this picture had been hanging in the Dining Room close to another Weaver print called ‘The Master Stroke’, depicting Jack Nicklaus driving at the 9th hole (Punch Bowl) during the 1967 Open. Frost & Reed then produced the print, although it is not known if it was a limited edition because the prints were not numbered. However, each print is signed in pencil by Weaver and he has also drawn in the margin a Remarque which, in this case, is of a golfer in a visor. This makes each print unique and more valuable. Who was Arthur Weaver? To many he
was the best mid- to late-20th century golf artist. Born in London in 1918 he was educated at the Hornsey School of Art (1934-1938). Completing his National Service in 1947 he moved to Wales and took up teaching at Cardiff School of Art. Weaver’s forte was landscape work and his paintings have captured railways, oil wells, scenes in the cotton fields and of course the world’s finest golf courses. Look closely at a Weaver and you can really imagine that you are playing that course. Weaver probably reached his
zenith
in the late 1960s and his original watercolours and oils from that period are much-prized items today. We believe the 1956 painting was his first foray into golfing landscapes and the chance to acquire the original for the Club could not be missed. Thanks to the Secretary’s negotiating skills and some valuable, informal advice from Steve Lotus, the well-known official artist to The R&A, USPGA and The Masters, a price was agreed last November and this lovely
ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB 2017 MAGAZINE
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picture is now in the Club’s possession. Even though the painting is in excellent condition and has a pleasing vitality, at time of writing it is in the tender care of the Liverpool Conservation Centre for minor but important renovation to reduce a small water stain, remove a couple of brown marks to the lead white pigmentation, and re-mount on non-acidic board. Once completed and re-framed, it will be put on display in the Inner Hall before taking up its final position in the Dining Room. The purchase was funded mainly from the John Behrend Fund together
with a
handsome and generous donation from one of our American members. The Club has been most fortunate with
these two finds. But there is one painting which, sadly, seems lost forever. In his 1947 book ‘British
Golf’,
Bernard Darwin illustrates the early history of Hoylake with a reproduction of an 1889 oil painting of the links by one T. Chaulms. The landscape of the links looks remarkable, either baked brown or
It is a mystery we would love to solve
very sandy and is credited ‘Courtesy of RLGC’. So who was Chaulms and what does his work tell us about the late 19th century course? What happened to the painting? Was it sold? Destroyed? There is no record of the work in
the Club’s Gift Book (of which more follows), used to record donations and gifts from 1881 onwards, and no entry in the Club’s minute books to show where it came from or what happened to it. It is a mystery we would love to solve. And Chaulms himself? There appears to be no trace of him even from a Google search. The plot thickens. n
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