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This little book Basketball Portraits of oil paintings by Thomas Crawford of thirty-one of the greatest basketball players of the twentieth century includes their brief biographies and statistical records.

This little book of oil painting portraits by Thomas Crawford of 28 of the greatest baseball players of the twentieth century includes their brief biographies and statistical records.

As I said in my first self-portraits book, copying master self-portraits gives the young or amateurish painter the illusion of knowing and painting like the masters themselves. It doesn't matter if the result in each case is superficial and plagiaristic. It gets the copier closer to the subjects copied and is a delightfully pleasant exercise. It may even improve the copier's technical ability.In a general sense, merely looking at master painters' self-portraits is like meeting the masters. If the viewer is also copying the works it is like painting alongside the master in the master's own studio or workplace.The first two self-portraits in this book are of Giotto and Benozzo Gozzoli, both born in Florence, Italy, respectively in 1267 and 1420. At that time and place there was no such thing as a studio self-portrait. Most wall paintings were al fresco, done in churches or palaces and mostly Biblical subjects. Artists such as Giotto and Gozzoli painted themselves, if at all, in a crowd or procession. Later, as secular subjects dominated European art, Durer, Holbein and Rembrandt, among others, created or nourished a practice of self-portraiture that exists and continues to evolve today.Leonardo never painted a self-portrait, but his red charcoal drawing is included in this collection in homage to the greatest painter ever. Self-portraits reveal much about the artist. Caravaggio, for example, led a rough, violent life and he portrayed himself as the severed head of Goliath. Raphael reveals in his modest self-portrait his renowned sweetness. Courbet, a bold, dramatic character, portrays himself in a greatly agitated state. Henri Rousseau, perhaps the greatest self-taught, naive artist, portrays himself in a grand, dignified manner. Klimt, who painted the most beautiful or brilliantly adorned women never painted his own portrait, saying, "I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women." So, Klimt is represented in this collection not by a self-portrait but by a portrait of him by Swiss painter, Ferdinand Hodler. Frida Kahlo painted a great many self-portraits in a wide variety of settings and poses suggesting, perhaps, the turmoil in her own life. -Thomas Crawford

The twenty-one people portrayed here represent the highest qualities of character and achievement. The group is not ideal except to the extent that it is worthy of that tribute by my personal standards. You might select a different group of people to honor. I chose this group in part because of the great pleasure I took in painting their portraits. Abraham Lincoln, Ida Wells, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr. are easily linked by their impassioned crusades for racial justice and equality. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is included for her tireless advocacy for women's rights and for social justice for all. Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Albert Camus are preeminent writers and seekers of truth. Journalists Jessica Mitford and I. F. Stone inuenced public action and social reform for the public good. Vincent van Gogh, the incomparable modern painter, and the musicians Enrico Caruso, Renata Tebaldi, Billie Holiday, and Giuseppe Verdi arouse our deepest feelings and aspirations with the beauty of their art. Fidel Castro has done more than anyone to foil US imperialism in Latin America. And four great athletes, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, and Roger Federer, deserve our respect for their unmatched grace and prowess. -Thomas Crawford