John Boultbee (painter)

Racehorse "Highflyer"
(oil painting by John Boultbee, 1785)

John Boultbee (May / June 1753 in Brailsford near Derby , England , † November 23, 1812 in Osgathorpe , Leicestershire ) was a British horse painter .

family

He was one of the twin sons of Thomas Boultbee (1724–1785) and Jane Bage (1732–1789), both of whom came from Brailsford, and was baptized with his brother on June 4, 1753 in Osgathorpe. His twin brother Thomas Boultbee (1753-1808) later studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and became a portrait painter . John Boultbee married on 11 December 1784 in Bursted ( Essex ) Ann Caulton .

Life

John Boultbee probably did not receive an academic education like his brother, but is said to have been a student of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) or perhaps George Stubbs (1724–1806). He could also have been a student of Sawrey Gilpin (1733-1807). So far nothing has been clearly proven in this regard. In 1775 he had his first exhibition in London . At that time he was living with his brother Thomas at 338 Oxford Street and was a member of the Society of Painters. He also gave painting lessons in the 1780s.

It was only at the age of 30 (1783) that he became interested in horse painting. In 1785 he painted " Highflyer ", the most successful horse of the 18th century, with which its owner Richard Tattersall made a fortune. This horse portrait probably prompted other clients to have their horses painted by Boultbee. Boultbee's way of painting, the combination of naive painting with attention to detail, inspired the breeder Robert Bakewell (1725–1795), the founder of modern sheep farming. He had his breeding successes on his farm Dishley Grange (near Loughborough in the county of Leicestershire) documented step by step by Boultbee in pictures. King George III. was enthusiastic about Boultbee's paintings of sheep and horses, ordered some horse paintings and even provided him with living space in Windsor Castle to make his work easier.

Often confused with his twin brother Thomas in literature, John Boultbee worked in Derby (Derbyshire) and Loughborough (Leicestershire) as well as Chester and Liverpool.

literature

Walter Shaw Sparrow: John Boultbee. Sporting painter. In: Connoisseur. Volume 91 (1933), No. 379.

Web links

Commons : John Boultbee - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Personal data according to the Internet file (www.familysearch.org) of the Genealogical Society of Utah (USA). - Another source ( British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections ; see below) gives Liverpool as the place of death.
^ Walter Shaw Sparrow: A Book of Sporting Painters. A Companion Volume of New Research on "British Sporting Artists" and "Angling in British Art". John Lane Publisher, 1931, p. 59.
^ Gerhard Charles Rump: Horse and Hunting Pictures in English Art: Studies on George Stubbs and the genre of "sporting art" from 1650-1830. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1983, ISBN 3-487-07425-7 , p. 146. ( digitized version )
^ Aubrey Noakes: Sportsmen in a Landscape. Ayer Publishing, 1971, ISBN 0-8369-2005-8 , p. 18. ( digitized version ). - The author Gerhard Charles Rump (see above), however, expressly contradicts Aubrey Noakes' claim that King George III. would have given Boultbee orders.

↑ Christopher Wright, Catherine May Gordon, Mary Peskett Smith, Paul Mellon: British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections. An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Center for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-300-11730-2 . ( Digitized version )

personal data
SURNAME	Boultbee, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British horse painter
DATE OF BIRTH	May 1753 or June 1753
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brailsford at Derby , England
DATE OF DEATH	November 23, 1812
Place of death	Osgathorpe , Leicestershire

[1] Personal data according to the Internet file (www.familysearch.org) of the Genealogical Society of Utah (USA). - Another source ( British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections ; see below) gives Liverpool as the place of death.

[2] Walter Shaw Sparrow: A Book of Sporting Painters. A Companion Volume of New Research on "British Sporting Artists" and "Angling in British Art". John Lane Publisher, 1931, p. 59.

[3] Gerhard Charles Rump: Horse and Hunting Pictures in English Art: Studies on George Stubbs and the genre of "sporting art" from 1650-1830. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1983, ISBN 3-487-07425-7 , p. 146. ( digitized version )

[4] Aubrey Noakes: Sportsmen in a Landscape. Ayer Publishing, 1971, ISBN 0-8369-2005-8 , p. 18. ( digitized version ). - The author Gerhard Charles Rump (see above), however, expressly contradicts Aubrey Noakes' claim that King George III. would have given Boultbee orders.

[5] Christopher Wright, Catherine May Gordon, Mary Peskett Smith, Paul Mellon: British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections. An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Center for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-300-11730-2 . ( Digitized version )