Cheshire Antiques Consultant Ltd has dated this piece to the 1930s.
Subject sporting Equine horse study portrait of the known animal brown & white race horse Rose of England thoroughbred horse facing right in full side profile standing on the lush short green grass at Newmarket races. The horse is wearing its saddle & reigns wearing number 11 above the jockey rider Sir Gordon Richards, who is side on & weaing his traditional jockey clothing colours, a striped hat red, white and blue, wearing white trousers & having brown & black riding boots, he is holding his whip and looking towards the viewer. The horse and jockeys shadow is being projected onto the ground near the bottom, In the background you can see a grandstand at Newmarket, abive a mix of light blue with scattered cloud sky.
The details are so incredible.
Title “Sir Gordon Richards Riding On Number 11 Rose of England Debut at Newmarket 1930” By H Watson. also inscribed Frank Griggs Newmarket 1930.
Oil on canvas.
Set in such a traditional decorative original gilt frame.
Circa 1930 early 20th century.
This painting is signed in the bottom corner by the artist H Watson.
In our opinion this is one of his finest sporting equine works.
Artist biography H Watson was a known British artist born in the late 19th century & he died during the early 20th century. In his works he loved to capture the effects of naturalistic light which gives his artworks an impressionist style.
Biography of the known Jockey Sir Gordon Richards (5 May 1904 – 10 November 1986) was an English jockey who was the British flat racing Champion Jockey 26 times, and is often considered the world's greatest jockey. He remains the only flat jockey to have been knighted. Gordon Richards was brought up in the Shropshire village of Donnington Wood (now part of Telford) where he was born at Ivy Row (now demolished), the third son of eight surviving children of coal miner Nathan and former dressmaker Elizabeth. His mother was the daughter of another miner, William Dean, who was also a lay preacher, and Richards was given a strict Methodist upbringing.
The family later moved during his childhood to Wrockwardine Wood where they lived in a row of cottages called The Limes, Plough Road, built on land bought by his mother His father reared several pit ponies at their home, and fostered the young Richards' love of equestrian sport. He rode the ponies bareback from an early age, then from the age of seven drove the pony and trap passenger service his family ran between Wrockwardine Wood and Oakengates station.
It is said that this is when he developed his unique riding style, using a long rein and an upright stance. He had two brothers, Colin and Clifford, who shared this love of horses and also became jockeys: the latter was a Classic-winning jockey. Leaving school at the age of 13, he became a junior clerk in the warehouse of the nearby Lilleshall Company engineering works, sometimes riding a pony to work. He found work as a clerk monotonous and already held ambitions of a career with horses. He answered a newspaper advertisement to be an apprentice to Martin Hartigan, trainer at the Foxhill Stable near Swindon, Wiltshire, owned by Jimmy White, and on New Year's Day 1920 left home to move there. His riding skills were soon noticed by his new employer, who gave him his first ride in a race at Lincoln on 16 October 1920, after a deal struck during a football match against the neighbouring Osbourne Stables.
White had bet on his stable to win, and the match stood at three all when his team were awarded a penalty. White insisted that Richards take it, with the incentive that he
Cheshire Antiques Consultant Ltd has dated this piece to the 1930s.
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Oil Painting Sir Gordon Richards Race Horse Rose of England Newmarket
