About this artwork

This large painting shows a match being played on the St Andrews Links by members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. The centre of everybody's attention is a decisive moment in a match between Sir David Baird and Sir Ralph Anstruther against Major Hugh Lyon Playfair and John Campbell of Glen Saddel. Lees carefully composed this complex scene, which includes over fifty individual portraits, using photographs of some of the golfers to help him.

Updated September 2023

  • artist:
    Charles Lees (1800 - 1880) Scottish
  • title:
    The Golfers
  • date created:
    1847
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    131.00 x 214.00 cm; Framed: 169.80 x 252.00 x 15.40 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased with the assistance of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, 2002
  • accession number:
    PG 3299
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Charles Lees

Charles Lees