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The Cribbage Players

Artist: Grieve, Walter Graham, RSA · 1872-1937

The Cribbage Players

The genesis of the Diploma Work is discussed on pages 205 to 206 of Esme Gordon's 'The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture…

The genesis of the Diploma Work is discussed on pages 205 to 206 of Esme Gordon's 'The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture 1826-1976" (1976); "One bitter morning in early 1920, the year of his election to the Academy as an Associate, Grieve entered his top-lit studio in York Place...With a large new canvas secured to his/ easel, his work began as usual. Several models were required, but circumstances enforced economies in time and money. Varied poses from the same figure were made to serve in this composition."

Esme Gordon proceeds to explain how the painting was sold at the RSA in 1920 and purchased by the Earl of Moray. When the Earl died in 1930 the painting was auctioned in Edinburgh and "Believing it to be his masterwork, Grieve himself bought it."