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Lot Essay
A rare view of Epsom at this date, the present work shows the Prince's Stand beyond the crowd. Erected in the 1780s by the Prince of Wales, it for a long period remained the only permanent building on the course. The lack of facilities for racegoers was still a point of contention twenty years later, for the June 1826 issue of the 'Annals of Sporting' reporting the Derby meeting complained that Epsom had no betting or club room. Their correspondent continued:
'The coffee house, though, as an inn, good, and the civility one receives there great, is a poor, poked up place for the purposes of turf business; and what with the fumes of grog, the fumigation of tobacco, the scent of stable boys and the swaggering of jockeys, as bad as a wild beast show, or the black hole at Calcutta. Noblemen and gentlemen will not be stowed in such a place, and to mix with bullies and blacklegs; consequently they drive down at morning and drive back at night.'
Such complaints eventually struck home and at last funds were raised to build a grandstand which opened in time for the 1830 Derby meeting.
Agasse was born into a wealthy Huguenot family in Geneva, and was trained in Paris in the studio of David. His studies included work on dissection and science, which enabled him later to depict animals with great accuracy. In the wake of the Revolution of 1789, he came to England on the advice of Lord Rivers, who was a notable racehorse owner.
We are grateful to David Fuller for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
'The coffee house, though, as an inn, good, and the civility one receives there great, is a poor, poked up place for the purposes of turf business; and what with the fumes of grog, the fumigation of tobacco, the scent of stable boys and the swaggering of jockeys, as bad as a wild beast show, or the black hole at Calcutta. Noblemen and gentlemen will not be stowed in such a place, and to mix with bullies and blacklegs; consequently they drive down at morning and drive back at night.'
Such complaints eventually struck home and at last funds were raised to build a grandstand which opened in time for the 1830 Derby meeting.
Agasse was born into a wealthy Huguenot family in Geneva, and was trained in Paris in the studio of David. His studies included work on dissection and science, which enabled him later to depict animals with great accuracy. In the wake of the Revolution of 1789, he came to England on the advice of Lord Rivers, who was a notable racehorse owner.
We are grateful to David Fuller for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.