RICHARD ROPER (BRITISH C.1730-1775)

The Lister Turk was a grey stallion captured in 1686 at the siege of Buda in Hungary, a decisive moment in the Great Turkish War fought between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire, which gave the crown of Hungary to the Hapsburgs. The horse was brought back to England in 1687 by James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, the illegitimate son of King James II and Arabella Churchill. It is known that the Duke fought with his charger at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690; this paralleled the history of the Byerley Turk, another stallion captured at Buda and present at the Battle of the Boyne. The Lister Turk later became the property of Matthew Lister of Burwell Park in Lincolnshire and sired Brisk and Piping Peg, both owned by the Duke of Kingston. Because of the romance of the stallion's history, the Lister Turk remained a popular subject for painters throughout the eighteenth century, as evidenced by Roper's portrait of the horse.