106 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



victory from the brilliant Wolaroi, the hardy Estland, and the consistent Desert 

 Gold. The canvas brings the scene back to all of us who witnessed the event 

 so vividly that we live those few intense seconds over again; we do not see 

 the impossible horses depicted by Herring; we see four horses, lifelike in the 

 fidelity of their pictured action, and each horse an entity in itself. In a fast 

 and close finish the eye cannot distinguish minute details of the struggling 

 horses, and the painter, cognisant of this, does not attempt that detail which 

 he would portray if he were painting a stationary and specially posed horse. 

 His chief object is to convey the impression of rapid movement. That is the 

 essential, and he has achieved this with such consummate art that the picture 

 is a classic among racing paintings. In Australia the horse is a national asset, 

 and in the Craven Plate picture Stainforth has endeavoured to depict for 

 posterity the most outstanding and memorable classic event in the annals of 

 our turf history. By his signal success he has earned the thanks of all lovers 

 of a good horse. 



Stainforth's art, however, is not confined to the painting of horses 

 alone. As an exponent of that now almost forgotten art, wood engraving, he 

 has proved himself a master. Both Lord Leighton and Sir John Millais, as 

 Presidents of the Royal Academy, selected some of his work for the 

 Exhibitions at Paris, Berlin and Brussels as the best examples of the English 

 engraver's art. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy on many occasions 

 and has achieved considerable success as an illustrator for the principal 

 English magazines. But his best work as an engraver is to be found, perhaps, 

 in the illustrations to Grant Allen's "Evolution of Art." Much of Stainforth's 

 present-day skill as a painter of horses is no doubt due to the patience and 

 attention to detail with which he became imbued as an exponent of the 

 engraver's art. 



One has only to study his "Head of Trafalgar" to realise that he holds 

 a high place among the great painters of animals. This work is a wonderfully 

 lifelike and faithful reproduction of the erstwhile turf idol. The head is 

 framed in bold relief by the shadow of the empty box, a look of expectancy 

 is in the eyes, and our attention is irresistibly drawn to the well-shaped ears 

 and the long, white blaze that so many of us have watched with anxious hearts 

 as the game old battler was commencing his characteristic finishing run to 

 victory. Note how beautifully the cheek fades away to a neck, w^hose glossy 

 sheen covers smooth rolls of muscles. Surely his nostrils move, and the old 

 horse breathes again! If Landseer had painted no picture but his "Fighting 

 Dogs Getting Wind," a work which he executed when quite a young man, that 

 effort alone would have raised him to the first rank of animal painters. And 

 without hesitation I claim that Stainforth's "Head of Trafalgar" is one of the 

 finest studies of the horse in existence, and, as an experienced student of 

 sporting pictures, I declare that his "Craven Plate" is the greatest racing 

 picture ever painted. 



Recently I stood before his "Poitrel," that great horse whose achievements 

 almost equalled the mighty Carbine. He stands on a trimmed plot of grass 

 with a w^all at the rear, his shapely, ruddy chestnut form in such clear relief 

 that we realise at a glance how this strong fellow won a Melbourne Cup with 

 ten stone on his back. He stands poised in his virile beauty of pliant muscles 

 and shining coat, a splendid specimen of the thoroughbred — truly a picture 

 that w^ill bring delight to future generations of horse-lovers. Such a picture 

 should belong to the Nation. 



There have been a few men in Australia who could both draw and paint 

 the horse. One of them was Douglas Fry. I knew him well, and had every 



