The Bill Blass Collection

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Lot 313
  • 313

* John Frederick Herring, Sr. 1795-1865

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Description

  • John Frederick Herring Snr.
  • A STUDY OF ALLAN MCDONOUGH

  • oil on artist’s board

  • 17 5/8 in. by 12 1/2 in. (44.8cm by 31.8cm)
signed with initials and dated J.F.H. 1846 and inscribed Allan McDonough upper right and inscribed by G. P. Fores, lower right Original sketch of Mr. Allan McDonough by J. F. Herring Sen for his celebrated picture Steeplechase Cracks painted 41 Picadilly G. P. Fores

Provenance

G. P. Fores, 41 Picadilly, 1846, from whom purchased by

G. D. G., December 4, 1919 (according to a label on the reverse)

R. McCreery

The Artis Group Ltd., New York

Literature

C. Graham and B. Curling, The Grand National, 1972, fig. 15

J. Egerton, The Paul Mellon Collection British and Sporting and Animal Painting 1655-1867, 1978, p. 307

Catalogue Note

This work is a study for Herring’s celebrated painting The Steeplechase Cracks, 1846 that was formerly in the collection of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. A full-length study of Allan McDonough is in the Yale Center of British Art, New Haven (see J. Egerton Literature, op. cit., pp. 306-308, no. 331, pl. 39). Steeplechase Cracks was engraved by J. Harris and published by Messrs. Fores in 1852 as no. 2 of the National Sports Series and according to a label on the reverse, the present work was executed in Fores’ shop in Picadilly.

Allan McDonough was a highly successful Irish amateur who rode frequently in Ireland and England; some of his greatest races won on the dark bay mare Brunette, by Sir Hercules, bred in Co. Meath.