Masters of Their Field - the great British sporting artists.

'There is nothing so good for the inside of a person as the outside of a horse' (John Lubbock, The Use of Life, 1894)

The genre of British Sporting Art harks back to days when horses were important facets of everyday life, and certain breeds of horse were prized above others for their speed, power or sheer endurance. Country pursuits grew up to represent the best of these breeds, and equine portraits became more prevalent over time as a form of advertising for both the master and the horse, especially when they could be engraved and marketed en-masse. Thus the ‘Sporting’ artist was developed – painters who loved their subject, were highly skilled, and concentrated on showcasing their patron’s status, especially concerning the horse.

The two artists who really started this specialist field were James Seymour and John Wootton. Both were working in the early part of the 18th Century, and while one (Seymour) was addicted to horse racing and the nefarious art of gambling, the other (Wootton) was socially adept and finessed his way around the aristocratic world of Georgian England. It was the wealthy elite who took on the best breeds of horse, as they were the only ones who could afford to – and thus a sporting painter needed to have wealthy patrons to introduce them to ‘society’ in order to pick up further commissions. The arrival of the ‘novus homo’, the wealthy middle class striving to break into the best aristocratic circles, created a second tier of sporting artists who, although they could never quite rival the stardom of their peers, still maintained an extremely good living.

Where Seymour and Wootton had started, the greatest of all sporting artists followed. George Stubbs started life as a portrait painter, but soon realised that the sporting world would bring far more commissions. He was the first to really analyse the subject scientifically and became a wealthy patron’s ‘go-to’ painter for anything of importance when it came to the horse. Stubbs pushed the genre beyond just the aristocratic pursuits of a few into the mainstream consciousness of a Nation, and the British public fell in love with not just Sporting Art, but also the beautiful animals that he so brilliantly painted. The British adoration for horses has not dimmed over the 250 years since Stubbs was in his prime, and his best work still creates passionate responses – an emotional feeling of rural idyll now largely vanished from this green and pleasant land.

The 19th Century heralded the zenith of the British Empire, and with it the rise of sporting art. Romanticism entered the British psyche as Britain consciously compared itself to the mighty Roman Empire, and the faded glory of over-grown ruins left behind. Painters started to use strong, bold colours – especially the red of hunting jackets, and patrons and their horses were portrayed with the imperious nature of people and animals who ruled. John Frederick Herring was at the peak of his powers at this time, and his soft yet strong approach to his subject resonated powerfully with his patrons.

With the slow decline of the Empire, and with the rise of the motor engine that could power not only cars but farm and manufacturing machinery, the need for horses dwindled. Breeds began to die out, especially those concerned with heavy work as machinery took their place. The old way of life that had existed between human and horse, both dependent on one another, was broken. This change was seemingly unnoticed to a British public who flocked to live in the bright lights of cities with all that they could offer, but one artist, the last of the great British sporting painters, documented the change with an emotional longing of a man who loved his subject matter. Sir Alfred Munnings lived and worked through the final throws of this change, and almost recreated the genre of sporting art through his passionate brilliance.

The subjects that he chose, such as Gypsy Encampments, were evocative of a time when human and horse worked so closely together that they became a family unit, halcyon carefree days.

This type of image was especially needed in between the two World Wars, where humanity seemed to have lost any semblance of the humane. Horses, Munnings felt, brought out the best in people.

Sporting Art should be seen as an intriguing historical document of a nation’s rise and fall, and especially its love-affair with the horse in those expansive times. We can trace the discernable character of the British Nation during its greatest and worst years, whilst also viewing the way that the horse was utilized to further an idea of self-greatness, and then forgotten about when no longer of use. Seen through this prism British sporting art is a celebration of the horse, a great status symbol which still endures to this day.

(The exhibition 'Masters of the Their Field - the great British sporting artists', will be showing from 29th June to 14th July 2017, at the Rountree Tryon gallery, London).