J.G. Shaddick, the Celebrated Sportsman
Benjamin Marshall·1806
Historical Context
Benjamin Marshall painted this portrait of J.G. Shaddick, a celebrated sportsman, in 1806, during his period as England's leading sporting painter. Marshall combined portraiture with horse painting, documenting the hunting and racing culture of the Regency era. He settled near Newmarket, the center of English horse racing, and his work provides an unparalleled visual record of early nineteenth-century English sporting life.
Technical Analysis
Marshall renders both the sportsman and his horse with equal care and attention, reflecting the English tradition that valued the portrait of the animal as highly as that of the owner. The outdoor setting and naturalistic light demonstrate his commitment to depicting the actual conditions of the sporting field.
Provenance
Possibly Mr. Payne, Walton-on-Thames.[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 February 1891, no. 78); (Vokins). E.M. Denny, London; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, 31 March 1906, no. 41); (Vokins).[2] Viscount Enfield. Earl of Stratford, Wrotham Park, Barnet, Hertfordshire. A.S. Cochran, London;[3] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 February 1920, no. 144); Basil Lewis Dighton, Esq. [d. 1930], London, until at least 1922.[4] Arthur S. Vernay, London, by 1927 until at least 1938.[5] C. Frederick C. Stout, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, by 1941.[6] (M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York), in 1965.[7] Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA. [1] This name appears in the catalogue of a 1941 exhibition in New York that included the painting, and again, with the city added, in Judy Egerton, _British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867_, London, 1978 [1979]: 197-198. [2] Vokins is identified as the buyer at both the 1891 and the 1906 sales in annotated auction atalogues in the NGA Library, copies in NGA curatorial files. [3] The names of Enfield, Stratford, and Cochran appear in the catalogue of the 1941 exhibition at The Century Club, with Cochran's ownership coming before that of the Earl of Stratford. Egerton 1978, 197, put the names in the order given here, and adds a question mark to the Earl's name. [4] _The Times_ (14 February 1920): 17, reported that the painting was sold to Dighton. The painting was noted as owned by him when it was reproduced in a _Country Life_ supplement to the issue of 15 July 1922. It was not included in a 4 May 1925 sale of some of Dighton's collection at Christie's, London. [5] Vernay is noted as the owner by H.A. Bryden, "Four Sporting Pieces," _Country Life_ (7 May 1927): 743, and Walter Shaw Sparrow, "Ben Marshall's Centenary," _The Connoisseur_ 95, no. 402 (February 1935): 61. He lent the painting to a 1938 exhibition in Washington, D.C. [6] Stout lent the painting to the 1941 exhibition in New York. A photograph dated 15 May 1945 in the Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, shows the painting hanging in the upper hall of the Stout house, above what appears to be a mezzotint by Henry Macbeth-Raeburn after the painting. [7] Egerton 1978, 197.
