132 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



among the most prominent North-country sports- 

 men of the second decade of the century. 



Dalby's style of painting is chaste and much 

 resembles that of J. F. Herring; and if he could 

 not impart to the coats of his race-horses the 

 wonderful sense of texture for which Herring's 

 pictures are remarkable, his horses are at all events 

 anatomically correct in drawing while his hunting 

 pieces are superior in their grouping and also in 

 sporting technique. We see by the manner in 

 which he puts his men in their saddles that Dalby 

 himself was a good horseman ; he also understood 

 fox-hunting and could prove his knowledge on his 

 canvas ; Herring knew more of coaching than of 

 fox-hunting, and thus Dalby had the advantage 

 over him in the latter department of art. 



It is by his hunting scenes, and by the portraits 

 of race-horses which North-country sportsmen com- 

 missioned him to paint, that Dalby is known. One 

 of his earliest patrons was Richard Watt, Esq., 

 of Bishop Burton, at that time one of the most 

 celebrated men on the turf. It was for Mr. Watt 

 that he painted that remarkable portrait of a 

 wonderful horse, the famous Blacklock, to whom we 

 trace the best blood on the English turf to-day. 

 This portrait, which is life-size, is a most life-like 

 presentation of the great sire. The picture, which 

 was painted in the year 1823, was sold at Christie's 



