T3's At Sunset

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

I am sure this has been posted about before, but paging through the latest Memory Lane auction catalog I am struck by how every T3 seems to show a sunset scene. I wonder if these cards were a showcase of sorts for the artists, or if sunsets were a popular background for paintings circa 1910?

George C Miller's are all sunsets of course, but not like the T3's.

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Posted By: ali_lapoint

i'm thinking they were an easy background to paint.

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Posted By: jay wolt

Without going through the 100 card set
I would guess that about half the cards
have a sunset backround and half don't.

With that said, here's one of each
Every card is a work of art

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Posted By: Tim Sanders

Just a guess but could the artist have been trying to get the most acurate image of the player involved? Afterall most games had start times later in the day to increase the gate - causing a number of games to be called on account of darkness- therefore the sunset would have been common in the background? Just an opinion but it makes sense to me.

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Posted By: jay wolt

Tim - The artists more then likely had a photograph
of the player and created the artwork from that.
I don't think they were in the stands w/ paints & easel.
The Mathewson & Lajoie shots are from pictures that I have
seen elsewhere probably Conlon photographs, others too I imagine.

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Posted By: jay wolt

Here's the Matty T3 and the photo (although beat up)
that it was taken from

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Apparently, the glorious orange sunsets depicted on T3s were fairly common on 1910 era tobacco cards in general. Not only do you find them on T206s, Obaks and Mecca Double Folders, but they're featured on a variety of non-sports issues as well. After looking at several non-sports websites, I could nothing, however, that could compare to the T3s in terms of artistic refinement. I am curious if anyone knows who the artist was who painted the images. Like a number of my favorite sets (Diamond Stars, 1950-52 Bowmans) they appear to be the work of one artist, yet it seems impossible that one person could have created so many images ...