Gimcrack with a groom on Newmarket Heath

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Gimcrack with a groom on Newmarket Heath (George Stubbs)
Gimcrack with a groom on Newmarket Heath
George Stubbs , 1765
Oil on Ln
96.5 × 186.5 cm
Jockey Club, Newmarket

Gimcrack with a groom on Newmarket Heath , or Gimcrack On Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stable-lad, and a Jockey is a picture by the English painter George Stubbs from 1765. It shows the legendary racehorse Gimcrack after the race in Newmarket Heath with his trainer, a stable boy and his jockey .

Newmarket is one of the oldest and most traditional racing courses in England. Horse races have been held here since 1605. a. Kings James I , Charles II and James II were also present as spectators or as active participants.

The painting was auctioned at Christies's in 2011 for £ 22,441,250 / $ 48 million. Stubb's second and handwritten version of the painting hangs in the rooms of the Jockey Club in Newmarket.

Gimcrack

Gimcrack was an English thoroughbred and one of the most successful racehorses of his time. In a turf career of 7 racing seasons, he won 27 of 36 races, his first race in Newmarket in 1765, his last - again in Newmarket - in 1771 at the age of eleven. Gimcrack was in the third generation a descendant of Godolphin Arabian , one of the three progenitors of the English thoroughbred. Like his parents, Cripple and Miss Elliott , he was gray. Despite his small height of 14 hands ¼ (about 142 cm) he was a fast horse with an extraordinary stamina . After his death he was buried on the wall of the old kitchen garden at Haughton Hall in Shropshire , where a memorial stone commemorates him.

The word gimcrack means worthless or junk in English.

description

The landscape-format picture shows part of the Newmarket race track under a serene, almost cloudless sky. In addition to the two-story judges' tower, the demarcation of the race track by a white fence can be seen in the background.

The jockey in the colors of Lord Bolingbrokes

Gimcrack appears in the picture in two different scenes. In the background on the right, he is leading a race several lengths ahead of a group of three horses in pursuit. On the left in the foreground he is standing in front of a rubbing down house , in which the horses were rubbed dry after the race. He's already unsaddled, his jockey is wearing the racing saddle under his arm, his trainer grabs his reins with both fists and a groom is rubbing his legs dry with straw.

After the race, Gimcrack is still “like electrified”, as evidenced by the ribs and bulging veins that stand out under his damp, dark fur, the flakes of sweat on his head and back, the distended nostrils, the ears laid back and, last but not least, the coach's posture who has to use all his strength to hold the horse and who seems to speak reassuringly to it. As with the other horses that take part in the race, the tail hair is cut straight behind the tail , as was customary at the time. In addition to a riding cap, the boyish jockey wears a black jacket with silver braids, breeches , white knee socks and black jodhpur boots with extremely raised spurs , as was necessary because of the jockeys' riding style at the time.

The name Gimcrack is below the group of horse and groom.

history

The painting was commissioned around 1765 by the stallion's then owner, Frederick St. John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke (1734–1787), well known for his flamboyant and lavish lifestyle and passion for racehorses, as the horse had won his first race at Newmarket. In 1780 he put the picture up for auction at Christie's in London, where it was auctioned for 27 guineas to George St. John, who later became the 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke. The painting remained in the Bolingbroke family through inheritance until 1943. In 1943 Henry St. John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke auctioned it at Christie's, where it fetched 4,200 guineas. The buyer was Walter Hutchinson, an art collector and owner of the Hutchinson & Co. publishing house . In 1951 the painting came to Christie's again, where it was auctioned for £ 12,600 for Lord Woolavington's Collection of Paintings by Sporting Artists . The Woolavington's Collection is one of the largest special collections for pictures with sports motifs. It was founded around the turn of the century by the whiskey producer, philanthropist and art collector Lord Woolavington. According to Christie's, Gimcrack was put up for auction because of the exorbitant insurance premium claimed for the picture. The painting was auctioned on July 5, 2011 for £ 22,441,250 to an unknown bidder.

literature

  • J. Egerton: George Stubbs, Painter: Catalog Raisonné. Yale University Press 2007.
  • R. Woudhuysen-Keller: George Stubbs, Gimcrack with John Pratt up on Newmarket Heath, in: The Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin. No. 1, 1988. pp. 126-127.
  • James Christie Whyte: History of the British Turf, from the Earliest Period to the Present . Vol. 1. 1840. pp. 505-507.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the Saleroom: George Stubbs' Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath , accessed June 18, 2015.
  2. ↑ Terry Riggs: George Stubbs Newmarket Heath, with a Rubbing-Down House, Tate Gallery, 1997 , accessed June 21, 2015.
  3. ^ The Telegraph. April 6, 2011 . Retrieved June 18, 2015