JOHN FERNELEY SENIOR (THRUSSINGTON 1782-1860)

Ferneley often painted versions of his paintings. In this instance, Lord Kintore himself appears to have commissioned two versions of this subject: one sold at Christie's, London, online, 24 June-8 July 2022, lot 197, and the present, originally given to Major Archibald Murray Douglas, better known as ‘Archy Douglas’ or ‘Captain Douglas’ for his position in the 52nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry Regiment of Foot. As a friend of Lord Kintore’s, Douglas was also an accomplished ‘chaser’, with the celebrated match on 31 March 1824 between Sir Francis Holyoake's Clinker, ridden by Captain Horatio Ross, and Lord Kennedy's Radical, ridden by Douglas, commemorated by Ferneley in one of his most important racing pictures, sold in these Rooms, 6 December 2011, lot 34.

Douglas may have been given this picture when he was recorded at Keith Hall in a letter from Lord Kintore to Ferneley, dated 3rd December 1824, with Kintore noting that ‘both Capt. Douglas and Mr. Hunter [were] quite and thoro’ly satisfied with the last days at the hall’ (Major Guy Paget, The Melton Mowbray of John Ferneley, Sen. (1782-1860), Leicester, 1931, p. 50). Sometime after, Douglas, or his descendants, appear to have given the picture back to the Kintore family.