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Lot Essay
The Start of the Goodwood Gold Cup, 1831, Lord Chesterfield’s Priam, his Majesty King William IV’s Fleur de Lis, and Mr, Stonehewer’s Variation, is a wonderful example of John Frederick Herring’s early stylistic development of rendering important racehorses in naturalistic settings. The present painting is a version of that which was commissioned by the 6th Earl of Chesterfield (1805-1866), owner of Priam, a legendary sportsman and important patron of the turf. The artist painted several works for the ‘Magnificent’ Earl, so called because of his fabulously flamboyant lifestyle, including Priam beating Lord Exeter's Augustus at Newmarket (Sotheby’s, London, June 9, 1989, lot 75) and Industry and Caroline Elvina (sold Christie's, London, 24 April 1987, lot 24, fig. 1). These were first offered at auction in 1918 by his grandson, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, possibly to fund his excavations of the tomb of King Tutankhamun. This repetition of composition was very common in Herring’s oeuvre; he would often vary his works only by the horses and the colour of the silks. Indeed, the same poses as are found in the present work can be seen again in Herring’s Start of the Derby, 1834 and the Start of the Derby, 1835 (won by Plenipotentiary and Mundig respectively).
Here the focus of the composition is, understandably, Priam, a bay horse with two white feet, got by Emilius out of Cressida. Bred in Sussex by Sir John Shelley, he was bought as a yearling for 1,000 guineas by William Chifney. He first ran in 1830 as a three-year old, winning seven of his eight starts, most notably The Derby. He was bought by the Earl of Chesterfield in 1831, and went on to win the Goodwood Gold Cup against the two other horses depicted here. After winning the Goodwood Gold Cup again in 1832, Priam was retired to stud at Lord Chesterfield's Bretby Park and subsequently sold for the record price of 3,500 guineas to A.T.B. Meritt and exported to the Hicks Ford stud in Virginia.
To the far left of the composition is Fleur de Lis. Bred by a Yorkshire clergyman in 1822, she had a comparatively long racing career. As a three-year old she belonged to Sir Matthew Ridley for whom she won numerous races on the Northern circuit, including the Doncaster Cup. An aging George IV bought her in 1827 and she was equally successful in the South, winning the Goodwood Gold Cup in 1829 and 1830; her loss to Priam in 1831 was her final race. At stud Fleur de Lis was a disappointment to the King, who subsequently sold her to France, where racing was beginning again after the turmoil of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Variation, a bay mare by Bustard out of Johanna Southcote, can be seen from behind at the centre of the painting. She was bred by William Scott Stonehewer who owned her throughout her racing career. She made her debut in the Oaks Stakes in 1830, her three-year old season, which she won despite having started as an outsider at twenty eight to one. In the Goodwood Stakes in 1831 she came last of the three runners behind Priam. After her six-year season she was then sold to Thomas Thornhill and retired from racing, becoming a broodmare for Thornhill’s stud, where she bred eleven live foals, all but one of them sired by Priam’s sire Emilius.
Herring is most celebrated for his accurate depictions of the history of the turf in the first half of the 19th Century; during his career he painted no fewer than twenty-one Derby winners, thirty-four of the St. Leger, and eleven winners of the Oaks. His rise to artistic prominence is often romanticised. Born the son of an upholsterer in Blackfriars he, like so many boys down the centuries, became obsessed with the latest, fastest mode of transport: in this instance the crack coaches of the turnpike age which passed his father’s shop on Newgate Street. Legend has it that his first drawing lesson came from the driver of one such coach. In 1814, at the age of nineteen, he arrived in Doncaster just in time to witness the Duke of Hamilton’s William winning the St Leger. Whether that timing was by design or just pure luck is a matter for speculation, and indeed the rumours as to why he moved to Yorkshire abound: he may have eloped; fled disapproving parents after a hasty marriage; or just have boarded the London-Doncaster coach on one of its daily passages past his father’s shop. Whatever his reasoning, the move to Doncaster proved to be a fortunate one, and after six years working as a coach driver on both the local Yorkshire and London routes, all the while continuing to paint, Herring secured enough of a reputation to allow him to turn to exclusively to art.
A note on the provenance:
The Start of the Goodwood Gold Cup, 1831 was once in the celebrated collection of sporting art belonging to William, 12th Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland (fig. 2). Eldest son of the 11th Duke, William inherited the title in 1863 aged just eighteen. His youth and naturally unruly character meant that he took very little interest in the responsibilities of his position, and he did nothing to negotiate the debts amassed by his predecessors. Instead he enjoyed the high life, gaming and gambling with his friends. One of his main interests was racing; his horse Cortolvin won the Grand National in 1867, boosting his income with winnings of approximately £16,000. Other wins included the Goodwood Chesterfield Cup in 1878, won by his horse Midlothian. Throughout his life the 12th Duke threw extravagant parties, at which he and his guests would entertain themselves by weighing each other on the jockey scales and keeping a record of the weight they gained throughout the night.
Large sums of money were spent adding to his collection of paintings, silver and decorative art, which reflected his love of racing and drinking. Much of the notable collection of sporting pictures is still held at one of the former seats of the Duke, Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran (now The National Trust for Scotland). This includes another portrait of Fleur de Lis, painted by Abraham Cooper, and several other works by Herring himself, such as his 1839 Charles XII, Winner of the St Leger, and The Flying Dutchman' & 'Voltigeur' Running at York, 13 May 1851.
However, to fund his extravagant lifestyle, Hamilton made the decision to sell many of the masterpieces from the Hamilton Palace collections. The sale took place across 17 days at Christie’s in June and July 1882, and has been described as ‘the most magnificent sale of a single collection that has ever been held anywhere’; it raised £397,562. Further sales took place in 1884 and in 1919, and in 1921 the demolition of the Palace began, marking the final chapter in its illustrious history. Works of art from these sales are now held in museums around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
When the present painting appeared at auction from the collection of Mrs. Miriam Leader, it was underbid by the American financier, philanthropist and thoroughbred racehorse owner Thomas Mellon Evans. Being unsuccessful, he sought out and with the assistance of E. J. Rousuck of Wildenstein purchased the other version on the same day.
Here the focus of the composition is, understandably, Priam, a bay horse with two white feet, got by Emilius out of Cressida. Bred in Sussex by Sir John Shelley, he was bought as a yearling for 1,000 guineas by William Chifney. He first ran in 1830 as a three-year old, winning seven of his eight starts, most notably The Derby. He was bought by the Earl of Chesterfield in 1831, and went on to win the Goodwood Gold Cup against the two other horses depicted here. After winning the Goodwood Gold Cup again in 1832, Priam was retired to stud at Lord Chesterfield's Bretby Park and subsequently sold for the record price of 3,500 guineas to A.T.B. Meritt and exported to the Hicks Ford stud in Virginia.
To the far left of the composition is Fleur de Lis. Bred by a Yorkshire clergyman in 1822, she had a comparatively long racing career. As a three-year old she belonged to Sir Matthew Ridley for whom she won numerous races on the Northern circuit, including the Doncaster Cup. An aging George IV bought her in 1827 and she was equally successful in the South, winning the Goodwood Gold Cup in 1829 and 1830; her loss to Priam in 1831 was her final race. At stud Fleur de Lis was a disappointment to the King, who subsequently sold her to France, where racing was beginning again after the turmoil of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Variation, a bay mare by Bustard out of Johanna Southcote, can be seen from behind at the centre of the painting. She was bred by William Scott Stonehewer who owned her throughout her racing career. She made her debut in the Oaks Stakes in 1830, her three-year old season, which she won despite having started as an outsider at twenty eight to one. In the Goodwood Stakes in 1831 she came last of the three runners behind Priam. After her six-year season she was then sold to Thomas Thornhill and retired from racing, becoming a broodmare for Thornhill’s stud, where she bred eleven live foals, all but one of them sired by Priam’s sire Emilius.
Herring is most celebrated for his accurate depictions of the history of the turf in the first half of the 19th Century; during his career he painted no fewer than twenty-one Derby winners, thirty-four of the St. Leger, and eleven winners of the Oaks. His rise to artistic prominence is often romanticised. Born the son of an upholsterer in Blackfriars he, like so many boys down the centuries, became obsessed with the latest, fastest mode of transport: in this instance the crack coaches of the turnpike age which passed his father’s shop on Newgate Street. Legend has it that his first drawing lesson came from the driver of one such coach. In 1814, at the age of nineteen, he arrived in Doncaster just in time to witness the Duke of Hamilton’s William winning the St Leger. Whether that timing was by design or just pure luck is a matter for speculation, and indeed the rumours as to why he moved to Yorkshire abound: he may have eloped; fled disapproving parents after a hasty marriage; or just have boarded the London-Doncaster coach on one of its daily passages past his father’s shop. Whatever his reasoning, the move to Doncaster proved to be a fortunate one, and after six years working as a coach driver on both the local Yorkshire and London routes, all the while continuing to paint, Herring secured enough of a reputation to allow him to turn to exclusively to art.
A note on the provenance:
The Start of the Goodwood Gold Cup, 1831 was once in the celebrated collection of sporting art belonging to William, 12th Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland (fig. 2). Eldest son of the 11th Duke, William inherited the title in 1863 aged just eighteen. His youth and naturally unruly character meant that he took very little interest in the responsibilities of his position, and he did nothing to negotiate the debts amassed by his predecessors. Instead he enjoyed the high life, gaming and gambling with his friends. One of his main interests was racing; his horse Cortolvin won the Grand National in 1867, boosting his income with winnings of approximately £16,000. Other wins included the Goodwood Chesterfield Cup in 1878, won by his horse Midlothian. Throughout his life the 12th Duke threw extravagant parties, at which he and his guests would entertain themselves by weighing each other on the jockey scales and keeping a record of the weight they gained throughout the night.
Large sums of money were spent adding to his collection of paintings, silver and decorative art, which reflected his love of racing and drinking. Much of the notable collection of sporting pictures is still held at one of the former seats of the Duke, Brodick Castle, Isle of Arran (now The National Trust for Scotland). This includes another portrait of Fleur de Lis, painted by Abraham Cooper, and several other works by Herring himself, such as his 1839 Charles XII, Winner of the St Leger, and The Flying Dutchman' & 'Voltigeur' Running at York, 13 May 1851.
However, to fund his extravagant lifestyle, Hamilton made the decision to sell many of the masterpieces from the Hamilton Palace collections. The sale took place across 17 days at Christie’s in June and July 1882, and has been described as ‘the most magnificent sale of a single collection that has ever been held anywhere’; it raised £397,562. Further sales took place in 1884 and in 1919, and in 1921 the demolition of the Palace began, marking the final chapter in its illustrious history. Works of art from these sales are now held in museums around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
When the present painting appeared at auction from the collection of Mrs. Miriam Leader, it was underbid by the American financier, philanthropist and thoroughbred racehorse owner Thomas Mellon Evans. Being unsuccessful, he sought out and with the assistance of E. J. Rousuck of Wildenstein purchased the other version on the same day.