The Forward Pass
Hibberd V.B. Kline Football Print

This item is sold.  It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

The Forward Pass football game scene
Detail of man catching football Detail of football player
Hibberd V.B. Kline (b. 1885) (after)
The Forward Pass
Close, Graham & Scully Inc., New York: 1909
Chromolithograph
14.25 x 44 inches, overall
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Dramatic action scene of early 20th century football players in the pre-helmet era, when many of the players wore simple nose guards.  A red-shirted team plays a black-shirted team, as a crowd and the benched players look on in the background.  The composition is very unusual: the panoramic image is broken into three rectangles like panels from an altarpiece, with the center panel almost devoid of activity, while the action fills the left and right sections and the runner catching the “forward pass” of the title reaches out of the frame toward the hovering football.

Hibberd Van Buren Kline was an illustrator, etcher and painter. He was a member of the Salamagundi Club and American Federation of the Arts, and a professor at Syracuse University.  Kline created book illustrations, posters, and contributed to national magazines.  He created genre scene posters for Close, Graham & Scully, Inc., including the humorous College Curses.  Among his book illustrations were those for A Geography of Man by noted geographer Preston E. James, first published in 1949, and reissued several times.  His works are in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Full publication information: “No. L 128.  Copyright 1909, Close Graham & Scully, Inc. C.G & S. Inc. Litho. N.Y.”

Reference:

Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 342.