The Football Game by Karol Hiller - ca. 1938 - 1939 - 65 x 84 cm Museum of Art in Łódź The Football Game by Karol Hiller - ca. 1938 - 1939 - 65 x 84 cm Museum of Art in Łódź

The Football Game

oil on canvas • 65 x 84 cm
  • Karol Hiller - 6 December 1891 - December 1939 Karol Hiller ca. 1938 - 1939

We would feature this painting on Sunday for the finals of the FIFA World Cup in football (soccer) BUT we have something really, really special prepared for you on that day. Don't forget to open DailyArt on Sunday! But let's go back to the game. :D

Karol Hiller's Football Game was most likely the last oil painting created by this Polish artist. It is dated to 1938-39, shortly before Hiller's death (he was killed by the Nazis), and it seems that it had not been completed. It was painted when, after a spectacular period of heliographic and biomorphic experiments, the artist returned to figurative painting.

At the same time, Hiller returned to the subject of the proletariat and painted poor working people with no faces, emerging from the darkness. The Football Game has been painted in a similar way; the players have no specific facial features, they play a match with the bleak industrial landscape in the background (the characteristic urban architecture of Łódź). In Hiller’s times, football was then massive and very popular among the working classes.

So, France or Belgium?

You can see more football (soccer) paintings here. :)

See you tomorrow!