178 



THOMAS SPENCER. 



(Born circa 1700. Died 1763.) 



T^HOMAS SPENCER, born about the year 

 -'• 1700, must not be confounded with Gervaise 

 or Jarvis Spencer who lived about the same time 

 and became a successful portrait-painter. Thomas 

 Spencer first made for himself a reputation as a 

 painter of portraits, miniatures, and on enamel, 

 which possessed a share of artistic merit. Later, 

 finding perhaps that this branch of the profession 

 was not lucrative, he devoted his attention to 

 painting the likenesses of race-horses ; and as a 

 horse painter he achieved considerable measure of 

 success. 



Like his contemporary, James Seymour, he often 

 embellished such pictures with the pedigree and 

 performances of the horse and the name of the 

 owner. Many of his paintings were engraved, and 

 the plates reproduce the particulars given on the 

 original. A set of thirty-three plates of famous 

 racers, each plate surrounded by engraved text, 

 executed by H. Roberts, was published by John 

 Cheney, London, between the years 1 740 and 1 746. 



