A Chestnut racehorse held by his jockey at Newmarket signed lower right 'J Wootton fecit' oil on canvas 99 x 125cm Footnote: Provenance: Acquired by Algernon Dunn Gardner (1853-1929) from Fores of Piccadilly on 3rd November 1913 as incorrectly of King Herod for £240 and thence by descent The present horse, prior to cleaning in the 1980s, had been ‘disguised’ to appear to be ‘King Herod’ (sired 1758) one of the great stud stallions of the 18th Century. It has been proposed that the present horse may in fact be Sweepstakes, son of the Bloody Shouldered Arabian (see lot 47) but a picture supposedly of Sweepstakes, also by Wootton and dated 1722 was at Christie’s South Kensington on the 9th of July 2014 (lot 121) and showed an animal with a much darker coat. Sweepstakes was grandsire to the great Whistlejacket and was owned by the 3rd Duke of Bolton (1685-1754) whose colours the jockey here seems to be wearing. Sweepstakes won the King’s plates at Salisbury, Winchester and also at Newmarket. Wootton became famous for his classic single-horse portraits such as the present picture, where he presented his subjects “in a classic profile pose, with the form elegantly contoured against a decorous landscape setting” (A. Meyer, John Wootton, catalogue for the exhibition, London, 1984, p. 14). Vertue records him as having “by his assiduous application & the prudent management of his affairs rais’d his reputation & fortune to a great height being well esteemed for his skill in landskip paintings amongst the professors of art & in great vogue & favour with many persons of ye greatest quality” (B.M., Add. MSS. 23076, f. 23b.). Although his many patrons included King George II, Frederick Prince of Wales and Sir Robert Walpole and he was regarded as the highest paid artist in England, yet also as “…a cunning fellow and has made a great interest among the nobility but he is the dirtiest painter I ever saw” (Robert Price in a letter of 1741 to Lord Haddington). Condition report: Oil on canvas which has been lined. The picture is in plane with good tension. The paint layer has a network of age and impact cracks which have darkened but are all stable. There are a few scattered retouchings covering some old damages which are well matched to the original. The varnish is even, clear and matte. The frame is in a good condition.