Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar was bestowed another honour in a career full of them when the MCC Museum at Lord’s unveiled a portrait of the Indian icon before the start of the 3rd Test between India and England on Thursday. The portrait was painted by Stuart Pearson Wright from a photograph taken by the artist at his home 18 years ago. It will remain in the MCC Museum until later this year and will then be relocated to the Pavilion.
This is not the first time that Pearson Wright has immortalized an Indian legend with the artist also previously painted portraits of Kapil Dev, Bishan Singh Bedi, and Dilip Vengsarkar. “As the work progressed, so did Pearson Wright’s approach, eventually ending with oil on abraded aluminium. The abstract background illustrates Tendulkar’s timelessness, unrestricted by any era or specific location,” a release said.
“It’s a huge honour. In 1983, when India won the World Cup, it was my first introduction to Lord’s. I saw our captain, Kapil Dev, lift the trophy. That moment sparked my cricketing journey. Today, with my portrait going up inside the Pavilion, feels like it’s come full circle. When I reflect on my career, it brings a smile to my face. This is truly special,” Tendulkar said.
“Unlike the previous paintings, which were full-length, the portrait of Tendulkar is a larger-than-life image of his head and shoulders,” the release added.
The Lord’s Portrait Programme has been running in its current form for three decades, but MCC has been collecting art and artefacts since the Victorian period, opening a dedicated museum in the 1950s making it the oldest sporting museum in Europe.
The Long Room Gallery is the oldest and most iconic gallery in sport. The Club currently houses around 3,000 pictures, nearly 300 of which are portraits.
“It was clear that MCC didn’t want this portrait to be in the same format as the previous Indian cricket portraits I made, so a fresh approach was taken with this one. I decided on a composition which focused more on Sachin’s head and also using a heroic larger-than-lifesize scale to give the painting a sense of gravitas and power. I have often painted a portrait with an abstract background, often a plain colour, rather than paint a rendition of an interior or exterior space. This is largely to give focus to the subject’s features and to minimise a context which might define the subject in some way,” Pearson Wright said.
