Footballers in Front of the Goal

Harald Giersing was interested in movement and dynamics, in exactly the same way as the Italian Futurists were during the period around the First World War. Giersing probably used a photograph from a newspaper as the basis for the painting “Footballers in Front of the Goal”, but he has ignored the details and concentrated on the main lines in the composition.

The painting shows the tumult before a goal in a game of football: attack and defence are struggling in front of the goalkeeper, who is reaching out at full length to stop a shot directly aimed at the bar. Harald Giersing has portrayed the intensity through the dynamism of the figures on the surface: the goalkeeper emphasises the height of the painting, the attacker’s raised leg shows the force with which he has kicked the ball, and the goalkeeper defends his head in the physically vicious fight at close quarters.