Cheffins
Lot 54
Eclipse and Bucephalus with jockeys about to race at Newmarket in 1770, signed lower left 'J N Sartorius', oil on card 15 x 20.5cmFootnote: Provenance: Thomas Miller Whitehead, sold to Algernon Dunn Gardner (1853-1929) in 1894 for £40, Thence by descent J N Sartorius must have painted this record (using drawings by his father Francis, according to John Lawrence in John Scott – see below) well after this celebrated race, where Bucephalus was put forward as the only horse who had proved good enough to possibly challenge the great Eclipse (see lot 56) took place. Run over the Beacon Course at Newmarket on 17th April 1770, it was the first race of the season for both horses, who met at level weights. Bucephalus, a lighter chestnut than Eclipse and belonging to Peregrine Wentworth whose racing colour was white, had been previously unbeaten in three races, though as Eclipse had never been beaten, the betting was 6-4 on Eclipse. The two horse race was said to have broken Bucephalus’ spirit and he never seems to have raced again. Eclipse retired to stud that same year and being unbeaten in any race and then siring over 350 winners, he can fairly claim to be the most famous racehorse of the English turf. Long after his death (1789) stories were ‘spread’ that Eclipse’s sire was in fact Shakespeare and not Marske. Indeed, an engraving by John Scott, presumably taken from this painting, was issued in 1820 in his, The Sportsman’s Repository; Comprising a Series of Highly Finished Engravings, Representing the Horse and the Dog, in All Their Varieties, pub. London by Henry G. Bohn, p.37, to give credence to that notion, in which Bucephalus is transformed and named as ‘Shakespeare’ the alleged sire of Eclipse. Both stallions had covered Eclipse’s dam Spiletta near together which gave rise to the speculation which is now largely dismissed. In the present painting according to Lawrence in John Scott ibid., Eclipse is ridden by John Oakley in the red colours of his then owner, William Wildman. CONDITION:Some surface dirt. Discoloured old varnish along the edges. Signed under the mount. Inscribed to the reverse.
