Art Collections: Paintings

This sporting screen is a compilation of eighteenth century engravings and original paintings after eighteenth century sporting artists. The front side features thirty-two prints of famous English racehorses engraved after paintings primarily by the artist James Seymour that have been mounted and hand-colored. The engravings were published by the printmaker and artist Thomas Butler (English, ca. 1730–1760) between 1740 and 1751. Collectively, these images with accompanying printed descriptions offer an important documentation of early Thoroughbred blood lines.

The verso side is comprised of oil paintings depicting high-school equitation copied from engravings in the 1729 book Twenty-five Actions of the Manage [sic] Horse, which were after drawings by John Vanderbank. An unbound first edition of this volume is held in the F. Ambrose Clark Rare Book Room.