In 1913 the French modern artist Robert Delaunay exhibited his ground-breaking painting 'The Cardiff Team'. It was an important painting in 20th century French art which used rugby as a metaphor for the newly industrialising nation which France was becoming.
Rugby was part of the 'shock of the new' heralded by avant-garde artists like Delaunay. But why was the painting named after Cardiff FC? What was the link between France and Wales? As this new episode of 'Rugby Reloaded' explains, 'The Cardiff Team' is much more than a depiction of a rugby match.
To read more about ‘The Cardiff Team’ order Bernard Vere’s Sport and modernism in the visual arts in Europe, c. 1909–39 for your library (health warning: nose-bleed inducing prices from an academic publishers
Robert Delaunay ‘L'Équipe de Cardiff’ (1913), Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris