Rembrandt may have died in 1669, but 2 years before his death, he produced this moving painting depicting the Return of KP to the England Cricket Squad. It is generally held to be among the finest pictures he painted, joining his other celebrated cricketing works.
In this painting, which hitherto many art historians have erroneously titled the Return of the Prodigal Son, KP kneels before Alistair Cook as part of the process of reintegration. He has cast off all mobile phones. Cook receives him with a tender gesture and expression of forgiveness as he imagines the double hundreds that will flow from the prodigal's bat in the coming series in India. To the right are Andy Flower and Hugh Morris. Between them in the middle background is Stuart Broad who appears to be composing a tweet to his faithful followers.
Cricketers wishing to see this masterpiece for themselves will find it in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
Cricketers wishing to see this masterpiece for themselves will find it in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
This is one of two cricket-themed works by the great artist - who correctly anticipated the microblogging trend - the other being The Night Watch, which depicts the dressing-room return of Jimmy Anderson after a particularly heroic rearguard action with the bat against Australian (or possibly South African) pace. It can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdamm. (Apologies to FB if he has already covered this topic)
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