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Equine Portrait Painters 

 Who Have Won Fame 



(By Everett L. "Percy" Smith) 



Permission of Trotter and Pacer 



OF our painters of horses in action, 

 the late W. Scott Leighton, of 

 Boston, was facile princeps. His 

 landscape work toward the end 

 was excellent, and he got atmos- 

 phere into his skies. As a colorist he 

 rivaled, it is my individual pleasure to con- 

 sider, the great Meissonier. 



I saw him, back in the 70's, working on an 

 action piece, its subject the snip-nosed 

 Smuggler, 2:15 1-4, the champion trotting 

 stallion from 1876 to '84, and, in a way, was 

 a pupil of his at his Century Building 

 studio, corner of Washington and Winter 

 Streets, Boston. He gave instruction gratis, 

 and was my kindest instructor of all. Like- 

 wise, he always claimed my assistance as 

 critic of action effect, though in but one in- 

 stance that I recall was I of actual assistance. 

 That was while he was working on his big 

 canvas, "Here They Come," for which he 

 received $3,000, and derived much revenue 

 from photogravure reproductions. These 

 readily sold at $10. 



One forenoon he was' puzzled because 

 none of several sketches for the central 

 figure, Charlie Thorn on a break, satisfied. I 

 recall taking a crayon and sheet of wrapping 

 paper, and, by twisting the head one side, 

 convinced him horses usually "break to one 

 side," and that, directly behind the poll, a 

 bend of their necks is necessary to give that 

 half-plunging action just before they catch to 

 their stride. He finished his figure that fore- 

 noon, and, if I do say it, there's not a better 

 horse "on a break" in oils. Later he pre- 

 sented me a rapidly executed facsimile 

 sketch, 8x10, of Thorn alone, and various 

 other tributes, trifles to him, golden to me. 



In his "Three Veterans," to be seen in the 

 corridor beyond the ladies' entrance at the 

 Adams House, he shows therein his versa- 

 tility, and the three dray horses there posed 

 include a strawberry roan, the best color 

 work in existence as concerns a horse. His 

 "Labor Day," that yielded $1,000, was a 



masterpiece. One of the horse's quarters 

 were chafed, and his treatment of the bare 

 hide scarce could be bettered. A galled 

 shoulder also was well executed. It is in a 

 very low key. 



Leighton delighted in painting poultry 

 and excelled. Ever did he have a "set" of 

 fowl caged in his anteroom at the studio for 

 constant study. The coloring of a brown 

 leghorn cock ever is truthful, and the rich 

 tint of the hackle and tail feathering abso- 

 lutely beyond criticism, I believe. Alexander 

 Pope's "Peacocks in Central Park," his 

 sketches of dogs and still life were grand, 

 yet he could not paint horses, cattle or fowl 

 as did Scott Leighton. Mr. Pope's (assisted 

 by Emil Carlsen) "Calling Out the Hounds," 

 in the corridor of Hurlburt's Hotel, a gigantic 

 canvas, was much admired and has been 

 recently done over. All visitors to the Mur- 

 ray Hill Hotel cafe recall Mr. Pope's "Polo 

 Players," his still life work, and crated Bos- 

 ton terrier, while, in the reading room, 

 above, is a fine dog piece, showing English 

 and Gordon setters, with shotgun, game bag 

 and accessories — a well remembered piece. 



Returning to Leighton, many who "went 

 through," in 1880, recall having seen him at 

 work from life in their roomy boxes painting 

 the set, reproduced at $50 by subscription, 

 in color, comprising Capt. Lewis, 2:20 1-2, 

 our first "plow-horse," that Horace Brown 

 raced so well ; Clingstone, then in Charlie 

 Predmore's hands and at 2:19 3-4; Black- 

 Cloud, 2:171-4, that had the stringhalt so 

 prominently, and Edwin Thorn, 2:161-4, 

 though the Thorn piece was furnished a land- 

 scape background. He told me how much 

 he received for the set, yet it is forgotten. 



It was a delightful privilege watching 

 Leighton in his studio, painting his superb 

 action pieces, "Hickok and St. Julien" (he 

 also painted it with a Charter Oak Park 

 backing); "Bair and Maud S.," with a road 

 and countryside landscape background. 

 Also, about this time, he painted "Mill Boy 



