In the field: a collectors guide to sporting art

A birds-eye view of the leading Northern European artists of a genre that ranges from horse racing to fox-hunting, fishing, game-shooting and hare-coursing. Illustrated with works offered at Christie’s, notably from historic Tivoli Farm in Charlottesville

At the turn of the 19th century, the artist Benjamin Marshall (1768-1835) claimed he knew ‘many a man who will pay 50 guineas for painting his horse [yet] thinks 10 guineas too much for painting his wife.’ Marshall was one of many artists who made a handsome living from aristocrats wanting to have their steeds captured on canvas.

Tivoli Farms. Photograph by Grant Ellis.

In the early 18th century, breeders had begun to cross Arabian stallions with English mares, and the thoroughbred racehorse was duly born. The breed was soon all the rage. The likes of Marshall and his master George Stubbs (1724-1806) depicted these horses at race meetings, and their pictures are at the core of a genre known as sporting art. It’s a genre that captures all manner of rural pastimes, from fox-hunting and fishing to game-shooting and hare-coursing.

Above all else, the genre concerns itself with the natural world and man’s relationship to it. Resultantly, sporting art thrived throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and even into the 20th century. Sporting art is pushing onwards into the 21st century with the National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art, in the town of Newmarket, with its grand reopening in 2016 after a £15 million refurbishment and expansion. There has also been a growing interest in sporting pictures among collectors in the Middle East and China.

Tivoli Farms. Photograph by Grant Ellis.

Tivoli Farms. Photograph by Grant Ellis.

Tivoli Farms. Photograph by Grant Ellis.

From 17 January to 1 February, Christie’s European Art sale will offer sporting art and sculpture from the private collection of Tivoli Farm. Set against the panoramic backdrop of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, the historic farmstead highlights key artists associated with the genre.

‘Sporting art concerns itself, above all, with the natural world and man’s relationship to it,’ says Brandon Lindberg, Director and senior specialist of Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art at Christie’s in London. ‘It perhaps explains why it thrived throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and even into the 20th century. Sporting pictures celebrate the environment people lived in — the English landscape — and that has always been a subject of great enthusiasm.’

The record price for a work in the genre was set in 2011, when Stubbs’ painting Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath  sold at Christie’s for £22,441,250.

Sporting art offers as rich a picture of British life at the time it was painted as any portrait by Gainsborough or Reynolds. The scenes fell somewhat out of fashion during the 20th century, though: in his book, Painting in Britain 1530-1790, Ellis Waterhouse claimed that ‘although of absorbing interest to the social historian’, British sporting imagery is ‘no business of the historian of art’.

Opinion has shifted again since Waterhouse wrote those words in 1953. The National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art, in the town of Newmarket, reopened in 2016 after a £15 million refurbishment and expansion. There has also been a growing interest in sporting pictures among collectors in the Middle East and China.

‘The genre’s big names, such as Stubbs and Sir Alfred Munnings, have consistently done well at auction,’ Lindberg says. ‘But it’s at the middle and lower end of the market where the best opportunities for a potential collector lie. Works by relatively little-known artists are available at very reasonable prices.’

On 12 December, Christie’s will stage In the Field, a sale of sporting works from an important private collection. Below, we highlight seven key artists associated with the genre.

George Stubbs (1724-1806)

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Liverpudlian Leonardo’, Stubbs is arguably the greatest painter of horses who ever lived. In large part, this was down to the scientific rigour and anatomical accuracy he brought to his work: the product of 18 months during which he locked himself away in a barn as a young man, dissecting, closely examining and drawing horses.

John Nost Sartorius (1755-1828)

John Nost Sartorius trained as a sporting artist under his grandfather and father Francis Sartorius (1734-1804). His brother was also a marine artist. As a result, his style is reminiscent of their more traditional approach to sporting painting than of his direct contemporaries. However, Sartorius’ depictions of horses tend to favour a more modern and more naturalistic approach.

Despite being from a long line of artists, John Nost Sartorius was likely one of the most prolific painters of his family. Living at Carshalton, Surrey, Sartorius exhibited over 100 paintings at the Free Society and the Royal Academy. He contributed 16 subjects and over 40 paintings to The Sporting Magazine, and had many esteemed patrons such as the Prince of Wales, Earl of Derby, and Charles James Fox.

John Nost Sartorius (1756-1828), Full Cry, 1810. Oil on canvas. 37¼ x 50¼ in (94.6 x 127.6 cm). $30,000-50,000. Offered in European Art from 17 January-1 February 2023 at Christie’s online

John Ferneley Senior (1781-1860)

If not quite in the league of Stubbs, Ferneley was one of this country’s top equine artists. The sixth son of a Leicestershire wheelwright, Ferneley moved to London to study at the Royal Academy School, before returning to his home county and settling in Melton Mowbray. 

John Ferneley, Sr. (1782-1860), Chickens in a barnyard, 1830. Oil on canvas. 28 x 35¾ in (71.1 x 90.7 cm). Sold for $8,190 in The Collector: English & European Furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September-7 October 2022 at Christie’s Online

John Frederick Herring Senior (1795-1865)

Herring started out as a coachman on routes between London and Yorkshire, painting only in his spare time. In due course, he settled in Doncaster — one of the stops on his drives — and became an artist full-time, painting the horses of numerous Yorkshire families.

Among his best-known works are those of the winners of prestigious horse races, such as the St Leger Stakes and the Derby, which he attended each year.

In 1845, he was asked by Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, to paint the monarch’s two favourite horses. The resultant painting, Tajar and Hammon, was given to Victoria as a birthday present and forms part of the Royal Collection today.

John Frederick Herring Senior (1795-1865), Ducks and Ducklings, 1851. Oil on panel. 16 x 13⅞ in (40.6 x 35 cm). Estimate: $10,000-15,000. Offered in European Art from 17 January-1 February 2023 at Christie’s online

John Frederick Herring, Sr. (1795-1865), A mare and foal beside a field shelter, 1954. Oil on panel. 9¾ x 12 in (24.8 x 30.5 cm). Estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Offered in The collector: English & European Furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September 2022 at Christie’s Online

Henry Barraud (1811-1874)

As the younger brother of important sporting artist, William Barraud (1810-1850), the two shared a studio from 1835 until William’s death in 1850. They collaborated on many paintings, including their book Sketches of Figures and Animals published in 1850. Not only did his brother inspire him, but he also studied with J.J. Middleton, a portrait and topographical painter, who influenced his work to be more figurative.

Though it is often thought that William contributed to the animals and Henry the landscape and staffage in the works they painted together, Henry created many major sporting paintings on his own both during and after his brother’s death. Notably so, Henry exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution.

Henry Barraud (1811-1874), 'Polydora', 'Annette', 'Salisbury', 'Polyxena', Mares Belonging to Earl Spencer. Oil on canvas. 39 x 78 in (99.1 x 198.1 cm). Estimate: $50,000-70,000. Offered in European Art from 17 January-1 February 2023 at Christie’s online

Henry Barraud (1811-1874), A bay and a chestnut hunter in a wooded landscape, 1860. Oil on canvas. 32 x 48 in (81.4 x 122 cm). Estimate: $12,000-$18,000. Offered in The Collector: English & European Furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September 2022 at Christie’s Online

Richard Ansdell (1815-1885)

Son of a Liverpool artisan, Richard Ansdell attended the Liverpool Academy School where he was later elected President. Exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, featuring as many as 149 works, he was elected as an Academician in 1870. Known for his ability to paint highly naturalistic depictions of animals with human-like pathos, he provided a variety of subject matter with remarkably accurate details.

Later building a studio on Loch Laggan, he continued painting until his death at Collingwood Tower, Farnborough, Hampshire. The contents of his studio were sold at Christie’s, London in 1886. Christie’s also holds the world auction record for the artist.



Richard Ansdell (1815-1885), A Fox Stalking Ptarmigan, 1871. Oil on board. 19⅝ x 13⅛ in (50 x 33.5 cm). Estimate: $8,000-12,000. Offered in European Art from 17 January-1 February 2023 at Christie’s online

Richard Ansdell (1815-1885), The wounded hound, 1847. Oil on canvas. 58¾ x 94⅛ in (149.3 x 239 cm). Sold for £478,400 on 21 November 2006 at Christie’s in London

Among his best-known works are those of the winners of prestigious horse races, such as the St Leger Stakes and the Derby, which he attended each year.

In 1845, he was asked by Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, to paint the monarch’s two favourite horses. The resultant painting, Tajar and Hammon, was given to Victoria as a birthday present and forms part of the Royal Collection today.

Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935)

Much like Stubbs, Thorburn was a supreme observer — however birds rather than horses were his specialist subject. He made frequent and extensive tours across the British Isles, seeking ornithological subjects to study.

‘Often this crossed over into sporting scenes,’ says Lindberg. ‘In images of driven grouse, for example. He created watercolours in the field, and they have a remarkable sense of immediacy because of this.’

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873)

Named a Royal Academician while still in his twenties and knighted while in his forties, ‘Landseer was nothing short of a virtuoso,’ says Lindberg. Perhaps the most enduring reminders of his talent are the four bronze lions on London’s Trafalgar Square, which he modelled.

John Emms (1843-1912)

Emms began as a studio assistant to Frederic, Lord Leighton, before striking out on his own as an animal portraitist. He was praised for the vitality and individuality of his subjects, and particularly renowned for his dogs.

Often, these were hounds, boasting a remarkable range of freshness or tiredness and depicted with confident, fluid brushstrokes. Emms was a keen huntsman himself and regularly went out with the packs of the New Forest area, where he lived most of his life.

John Emms (1843-1912), Hours of idleness-hounds and a terrier in a kennel, 1899. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 in (101.6 x 127 cm). Sold for £397,250 on 20 May 2004 at Christie’s in London

John Emms (1843-1912), The Huntsman Returns. Oil on canvas. 50 x 40 in (127 x 101.6 cm). Estimate: $80,000-120,000. Offered in European Art from 17 January-1 February 2023 at Christie’s online

Often these were hounds, boasting a remarkable range of freshness/tiredness and depicted with confident, fluid brushstrokes. Emms was a keen huntsman himself and regularly went out with the packs of the New Forest area, where he lived most of his life.

Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959)

‘One might call Munnings the last, great British sporting artist,’ Lindberg says. ‘No account of the genre is complete without him.’

After serving as a war artist, recording the activities of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade in France during the First World War, Munnings made a career out of horse-racing pictures and hunting scenes.

Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart (1824-1896)

Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart was considered one of the foremost animaliers, who formally trained at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became a frequent participant in the Paris Salons from 1847 through 1879. His works, such as the bloodhound sniffing a tortoise, often capture the ‘soul’ of the animal — in this case to display the curiosity and capriciousness of the hound.

Pairs of hounds, such as this supremely ‘loyal’ pair in The Collector sale, were often found flanking an entry as if to stand guard. Jacquemart also secured several civil commissions for equestrian groups, notably for l'Hôtel de Ville de Compiègne and the Fontaine St. Michel in Paris. Barbezat was part of the Société du Val d'Osne group of foundries. These models are illustrated in the Val d'Osne Catalogue (No. 2, pl. 631, 1864). Another pair are displayed in the gardens at Montier-en-Der, Haute-Marne.

Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart (1824-1896), Paire de Chiens de chasse (Pair of hunting dogs). Cast iron. Dog with harness: 37½ in (95.25 cm) Dog with bird: 38 in (96.5 cm). Sold for $35,280 in The Collector: English & European Furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September 2022 at Christie’s Online

Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart (1824-1896), Bloodhound and a tortoise. Bronze, brown patina. 5¾ in (14.6 cm) high, 7⅛ in (18 cm) wide, 4 in (10 cm) deep. Estimate: $5,000-$8,000. Offered in The collector: English & European furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September 2022 at Christie’s Online

Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart (1824-1896), Paire de Chiens de chasse (Pair of hunting dogs). Cast iron. Dog with harness: 37½ in (95.25 cm) Dog with bird: 38 in (96.5 cm). Sold for $35,280 in The Collector: English & European Furniture, Ceramics, Silver & Works of Art on 23 September 2022 at Christie’s Online

As is clear from works such as A Start at Newmarket  (1937), his style and subject matter were strongly influenced by the French Impressionist, Edgar Degas (who had also painted racing scenes). Munnings particularly liked to capture that moment of hushed tension just before the race’s start, as the jockeys in their brightly coloured silks prepare for the eruption of energy and excitement.

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