William Shaw (fl.1758-1772)
William Shaw (fl.1758-1772)

Brilliant, William Croft's dun Stallion, being led towards a mare

Details
William Shaw (fl.1758-1772)
Brilliant, William Croft's dun Stallion, being led towards a mare
signed and dated 'Wm Shaw pinxt 1758' (lower left)
oil on canvas
39 x 49 in. (99 x 124.5 cm.)
Provenance
Sir Hugo Sebright, 14th Bt; Christie's, 11 December 1959, lot 129 (sold 130 gns.).
Arthur Ackermann & Son, London, 1960.
Literature
J. Egerton, The Paul Mellon Collection: British Sporting and Animal Paintings, 1655-1867, London, 1978, p.112, no. 108.

Lot Essay

Brilliant by Old Crab, out of a daughter of the Godolphin Arabian, was bred by Charles, 2nd Earl of Portmore (who superintended the management of the Royal racehorses at Newmarket) and foaled in 1750. He was bought as a two-year-old by William Crofts, of West Harling, Norfolk, and had a successful racing career from 1754 to 1756, and subsequently an even more successful career at stud. Reginald Heber in his Historical List of Horse Matches Run of 1760, described him as 'very lucky in getting foals, which are in general very well-sized and very handsome', and in the 1760s his stud fee is recorded as having doubled from 'five guineas the mare and five shillings the servant', to ten. His most famous progeny was the Don Dun; his other successful offspring are listed by Thomas Taunton (Portraits of Celebrated Racehorses of the past and present centuries.... with their respective Pedigrees and Performances recorded in full, vol.I, 1887, pp. 73-4).

In 1760 William Shaw first exhibited at the Society of Artists, of which he eventually became a Fellow, and is recorded as living in Maddox Street, near Hanover Square, London, by 1764. He later moved to Mortimer Street, where he is reputed to have built 'a large painting room with conveniences to receive the animals from which he painted' (see E. Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in England, 1808). Among his patrons were the Duke of Ancaster, Lord Orford and Lord Montford. His pictures reflect the influence of John Wootton and James Seymour.

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