painting (oil): "Two racehorses with grooms and hounds in the park at Newstead Abbey"

One of a pair of sporting paintings (NA 2246/1,2) depicting the 4th Lord Byron's racehorses and their grooms in the grounds at Newstead Abbey. The two horses shown full-length walking in profile to viewer's left, a young groom in red costume and carrying a riding crop in his right hand astride the gray horse; a second groom on foot, his back to the viewer, leads the other horse. In the foreground three dogs stand or run. In the background are the west and south facades of the Abbey with a view into the Great Garden beyond. Three horses exercise in the middle distance. Oil on canvas in 20th-c. frame (gilt gesso) glazed 8.1999 with 'Miragard Magic' glass. Formerly in the collection of sporting pictures formed in the 1930s by John, the 4th Marquess of Bute (see Christie's sale catalogue "The Bute Collection of Sporting Pictures" 27.5.1999, Lot 1). Pair purchased by Private Treaty Sale for £35,000 with grant aid from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. Dimensions of canvas: 51 x 64 cm.