'The Bloody Shoulder'd Arabian'

John Wootton was the pre-eminent artist specialising in sporting and landscape subjects for most of the first half of the eighteenth century. His classic single-horse portraits, such as the present picture, were an original formula presenting his subjects in profile, in a landscape setting. The Bloody Shoulder'd Arabian, so-called because of the distinctive red markings on his right side, was bought in Aleppo by Nathaniel Harley, who had settled there as a merchant in 1686. Arabian horses were great status symbols, on account of their success as stallions and the considerable problems and costs associated with importing them. The stallion passed through different ownerships, as was commonplace; at one time he was owned by the 4th Duke's uncle, Edward Harley, 2^nd Earl of Oxford, one of Wootton’s most important patrons. The artist painted several portraits of the stallion, always depicted in this profile.

Thomas Osborne, 4^th Duke of Leeds, and his father, the 3^rd Duke, were both important patrons of Wootton and Hornby Castle, the principal seat of the Dukes of Leeds after Kiveton Hall was demolished in 1812, housed a considerable collection of works by the artist. In 1902, the present work was listed in the Billiard Room of Hornby Castle.