Vintage Undervalued Roookies

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by h2oya311

So I’ve been selling a few of my 1950s Topps rookies to take some chips off the table. Might never get some of these back if prices continue to rise. The number of people who have reached out to me post sale on some of these cards shows me that there is still room for growth.

Anyway, can anyone explain the background of the 1951 Bowman Mays? Is that a sheet trying to hide the background, which appears to be a Midwestern barn?

Seriously, what the heck is it? A green barn? Here’s the one I sold:

Artistic license.
Here's the photo used for the card (not my photo). The background is a canvas backstop (see grommet), the barn or equipment shed serves a few purposes. It establishes depth perspective for the viewer, balances a hard vertical edge against the soft flowing canvas edge to keep your eye from exiting to the right, the dark roof-line is important to the image also as it forces your eye back to the subject matter. The shed also ties in the green of the underside of his cap with the color of the siding, the gold canvas is also tied in to the small dirt patch at the base of the shed. You can see five layers of depth. The name, the batter, the canvas, the shed, and the sky. Arguably there are 3 more subtle layers, the grommet, the patch of dirt at the base of the shed, and the peak of the roof.

The blue sky is left open so the viewers eye can exit the painting. The artist also removed the shoulder patch and painted the shoulder the brightest white to guide your eyes from that spot up to Willies eyes, down his right shoulder to his hands, then up the bat to the top, then across the painting and out the blue sky patch. Interesting to note, his left shoulder sits squarely in what is known as the golden mean or golden ratio which is used in architecture and painting.

IMHO, one of the most beautiful cards ever made.