A Match at Newmarket, No. 1: The Prince of Wales's Traveller Beating Lord Grosvenor's Meteor over the Beacon Course at Newmarket

Maker John Nost Sartorius (British, 1759-1828)

Collections

British Paintings

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1790

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 21 1/8 × 38 in. (53.7 × 96.5 cm.) frame: 24 1/2 × 41 1/4 × 1 1/2 in. (62.2 × 104.8 × 3.8 cm.)

SignedSigned and dated lower left: J.N. Sartorius 1790

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Dr. Charles H. Strub

Label TextPerhaps through the example of his father, who was also a sporting artist, Sartorius developed an acute understanding of the qualities of art that appealed to racing enthusiasts and other sportsmen. With clear-headed pragmatism, he adapted his limited technical abilities to the specific demands of this market. By working with expedition, he was able to capitalize on the excitement generated by sensational races and up-and-coming horses. The present paintings document two high-profile matches held during the spring of 1790 over the grueling four-mile Beacon Course at Newmarket, Norfolk, for a prize of 500 guineas. These were one-on-one matches between horses owned by three of the leading patrons of the British turf: George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830); Richard, 1st Earl Grosvenor (1731-1802); and Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (1765-1802). Sartorius had completed the paintings within months of the matches and, as with other popular compositions, he painted multiple repetitions of the set, all dated 1790. He further capitalized on public interest through engraving; a pair of aquatints based on these two compositions was produced by J. Edy and published on October 23, 1790.
The first painting in the pair (the present painting, 58.12) represents a match held on May 3, 1790 between Traveller by Highflyer, purchased the previous year by the Prince of Wales, and Meteor by Eclipse, owned by Lord Grosvenor. Sartorius shows Meteor narrowly losing the match to Traveller, with the trailing jockey raising his crop in the air to prod the horse to greater speed. The match was an upset, for Meteor had been favored to win. In the second scene (see 58.13), Sartorius represents a subsequent race run over the Beacon Course on May 8, 1790 in which the Prince of Wales's luck was reversed. In that race, Traveller lost to Grey Diomed by Diomed, purchased in 1789 by the Duke of Bedford. It was later claimed that more money depended on the outcome of the race "than was ever before known, or has ever been heard of since." Sartorius shows Grey Diomed with a considerable lead over Traveller, whose jockey raises his crop to urge the horse on.
Painting in a rather flat, straightforward style, Sartorius has provided the essential facts of the race and the setting, but not much more. The colors of the jockeys' silks and of the horses themselves provide the clues necessary for identifying the cast of characters. The flat, treeless terrain, with windmills visible in the background of the second scene, identifies the scene as Newmarket. The figures crowding the windows and roof of the spectators' stands represent, in radically reduced form, the great crowds of onlookers that witnessed the races. When the paintings hang side by side, the action is framed by the two spectators' stands, enhancing the mirroring quality of the images as a pair. The watchful figures also provide internal surrogates for the viewer, re-directing our attention to the race. Sartorius evidently liked the device, for it recurs in a number of his works.
In composition and motif, there is an emphatically repetitive quality to both paintings. The horses are shown in essentially the same pose, one that freezes them at the moment of utmost strain. Although neither painting conveys a convincing sense of movement, Sartorius succeeds better in the first painting, in which the juxtapositioning of the horses suggests progressive movement from one side of the canvas to the other. The vertical fence posts behind the horses are also useful in charting their lateral movement, as are the shadows falling beneath their legs. On the whole, however, the paintings reveal the limited function for which they were designed. Their factual and formulaic character attests to the premium Sartorius and his patrons placed on clarity and intelligibility. Rather than imaginative works of art, they were intended as evocative mementos of great racing occasions, faithfully documenting the closely followed events of the turf.

Status

Not on view

Object number58.12