206 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



Gooch's work attracted notice when the art critic's 

 survey of the exhibitions was much less exhaustive 

 than it is nowadays. 



In 1794, the year in which the artist had no 

 fewer than thirteen paintings on the Royal Aca- 

 demy walls, the critic is at greater pains to express 

 his appreciation. "The smaller sized pictures of 

 Mr. Gooch's are meant as different characters, 

 and the set (of which he is now finishing the 

 remainder) comprises twelve, with the like number 

 of dogs to correspond ; these, together with six 

 stages of the racehorse, are designed for the 

 furnishing of any gentleman's room entirely with 

 portraits of those useful and entertaining animals, 

 and which from the specimens here given certainly 

 will form a very pleasing assemblage." That the 

 pictures were well worth buying was the highest 

 praise the writer could bestow ; we have not gone 

 much beyond that at the present day, but the idea 

 is less frankly expressed. 



In the exhibition of 1800 he exhibited a portrait 

 of an ox which had distinguished himself by the 

 unbovine achievement of winning a race. The 

 animal is said to have run this race, which was 

 nearly two miles, in eight minutes. 



Gooch appears to have painted either one, two 

 or three sets of pictures representing the career 

 of a racehorse. The Royal Academy exhibition 



