.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This painting was commissioned by Denis O’Kelly in the spring of 1770 to commemorate his outright purchase of Eclipse for 1,100 guineas from William Wildman, who had previously owned a half-share in the horse. Eclipse first raced at Newmarket in the Spring of that year, winning races on 17 and 19 April. Historically, there has been some confusion because the match of 17 April was registered and run in Wildman’s name, even though O’Kelly had acquired full ownership of the horse by that date.
Wildman purchased Eclipse as a yearling when the Duke of Cumberland’s stud was sold at Windsor following his death, effectively using the proceeds from the sale of Gimrack less than a year earlier. Cumberland had an enormous impact on the development of the thoroughbred and of The Jockey Club in its early days, with Eclipse being his greatest success. The horse produced an unbroken sequence of eighteen wins (including eight walkovers), which remains a record for an unbeaten horse in England. More than 95% of all thoroughbreds in the world today also descend in the direct male line. It is perhaps telling that a majority of the remainder descend from Herod, another horse which Cumberland had bred.
The setting of this painting is established by a somewhat oblique view of one end of the rubbing-house at the end of the Beacon course and faithfully follows Stubbs’ study of the horse set against a plain background (for this painting, see Egerton, op. cit., no. 74). The same study had been used to formulate Stubbs’ painting of Eclipse with William Wildman and his two sons (op. cit., no. 75). The horse emerges saddled from the 4 Mile Stables. A jockey, dressed in the scarlet silks and black cap, approaches and is about to climb into the saddle. On account of his dress, which comports with Wildman’s unregistered colours, the jockey is likely to be Samuel Merriott (Merrit), who generally rode Eclipse. The colours would be adopted by O’Kelly as his own.
The present painting may have been the work which Stubbs exhibited as ‘A Portrait of the famous horse, Eclipse’ at the Society of Artists in 1771, though the description is equally apt for the aforementioned painting of Wildman and his sons. The exhibited picture received favorable reviews, with Robert Baker noting in that year that ‘The picture of the famous horse Eclipse, by Stubbs, is an exceedingly good one’ (see Observations…, p. 25). Its success is confirmed by the fact that it became one of the most copied of all of Stubbs’ racehorse portraits, in large part due to Thomas Burke’s mezzotint, which was first published by Robert Sayer on 1 October 1772. A second version of the painting had been in the collection of the 5th Earl of Rosebery and was gifted to The Jockey Club by his daughter, Lady Sybil Grant. That version was almost assuredly painted for Stubbs’ Turf Review series of the early 1790s.
Wildman purchased Eclipse as a yearling when the Duke of Cumberland’s stud was sold at Windsor following his death, effectively using the proceeds from the sale of Gimrack less than a year earlier. Cumberland had an enormous impact on the development of the thoroughbred and of The Jockey Club in its early days, with Eclipse being his greatest success. The horse produced an unbroken sequence of eighteen wins (including eight walkovers), which remains a record for an unbeaten horse in England. More than 95% of all thoroughbreds in the world today also descend in the direct male line. It is perhaps telling that a majority of the remainder descend from Herod, another horse which Cumberland had bred.
The setting of this painting is established by a somewhat oblique view of one end of the rubbing-house at the end of the Beacon course and faithfully follows Stubbs’ study of the horse set against a plain background (for this painting, see Egerton, op. cit., no. 74). The same study had been used to formulate Stubbs’ painting of Eclipse with William Wildman and his two sons (op. cit., no. 75). The horse emerges saddled from the 4 Mile Stables. A jockey, dressed in the scarlet silks and black cap, approaches and is about to climb into the saddle. On account of his dress, which comports with Wildman’s unregistered colours, the jockey is likely to be Samuel Merriott (Merrit), who generally rode Eclipse. The colours would be adopted by O’Kelly as his own.
The present painting may have been the work which Stubbs exhibited as ‘A Portrait of the famous horse, Eclipse’ at the Society of Artists in 1771, though the description is equally apt for the aforementioned painting of Wildman and his sons. The exhibited picture received favorable reviews, with Robert Baker noting in that year that ‘The picture of the famous horse Eclipse, by Stubbs, is an exceedingly good one’ (see Observations…, p. 25). Its success is confirmed by the fact that it became one of the most copied of all of Stubbs’ racehorse portraits, in large part due to Thomas Burke’s mezzotint, which was first published by Robert Sayer on 1 October 1772. A second version of the painting had been in the collection of the 5th Earl of Rosebery and was gifted to The Jockey Club by his daughter, Lady Sybil Grant. That version was almost assuredly painted for Stubbs’ Turf Review series of the early 1790s.