The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



151 



ami Blondine," with John Shepard driving; 

 "Edward and Hick Swiveler," with .Murphy 

 up, at Fleetwood Park; "Billy D., with 



running matt.'." for J. 1'.. Barnaby.; and, later, 

 a now sot for reproduction on the limited 

 subscription plan, at $25 the pair, and com- 

 posed of "Mr. Work behind Edward and 



Swiveler," and "Mr. Yanderbilt behind 

 Aldine and Maud S." Very likely these were 

 painted for their respective owners, yet i 

 nave seen a very few reproductions and pur- 

 chased the set at the figure mentioned, 

 truthfully reproduced by our very best 

 chronio lithographers, Prang & Co. 



Xo painter worked harder than did Scott 

 Leighton, and I have known him to have 

 above 100 sketches and partially under-way 

 pictures in the studio at one time. All of his 

 "sales'" were successes, and today his work 

 brings very high prices, though seldom 

 offered. Xo one could paint young fowls as 

 did he, and he ever could be found at Rates 

 Farm in the Spring, making studies of the 

 little Lamberts, Abrahams, Cobdens or 

 Wedgewoods. In cattle work he also was 

 successful, but his best work and best loved 

 was in the line of road scenes with his sub- 

 jects at speed. 



One season he made the fatal error of 

 copying some few of Adolph Schreyer's 

 pieces with their Arabian horses and war- 

 riors, but the press took him to task severely 

 for it. Fortunately, the "break" did no per- 

 manent injury, professionally or financially. 

 No painter of horses ever w^as as favored by 

 orders at remunerative figures as was he, 

 once he got to be known. He painted nearly 

 all New England sires of note. A verv 

 creditable piece by him that New Yorkers 

 may see is the portrait of Eva, 2:2$ 1-2, 

 hanging at Durland's, though it showed age 

 and was somewhat in need of retouching 

 when I saw- it last, three or four years since. 



Well do I recall watching Leighton paint 

 the humorous road scenes depicting the vil- 

 lage parson in his "one-hoss shay" cleaning 

 up the road, and also a sleighing piece that 

 he did, which for truthfulness of detail were 

 both excellent. Years ago he did these, long 

 before he gave over his time seriously to his 

 life work. He leased a stable in the heart of 

 Boston, where he worked from life, and at- 

 tended many autopsies at the abattoir to 

 study anatomy thoroughly. All in all. 

 Leighton was our very best painter of the 

 light harness horse, and, too, the most pro 

 lific and versatile. 



Years, years ago we had here Theodore 

 Marsden and an old deaf mute named 

 Mitchell, both of whom did very heavy por- 

 traits, painting over and over, rarely using 



the palotto or oils. ( )f them, Marsden was 

 by far the better. He worked directly from 

 life, rarely even sketching in his subject with 

 a crayon. 



His "Godfrey's Patchen," showing the sire 

 of Hopeful in his box, was his best, and was 

 warm in color treatment, somewhat dacking 

 the true stable atmosphere, I ever considered, 

 though it has had many admirers. Few ex- 

 celled this old painter as to securing expres- 

 sion of the eye. in painting stallions more 

 especially, and he always gave his subjects 

 plenty of bone and fought away from high 

 finish or overdoing. His landscapes handi- 

 capped him badly. Mitchell, always "hard 

 up," accepted mere pittances for his work, 

 $100 rarely being paid him, where Leighton 

 received, usually, from $250 to $500 for much 

 smaller canvases. The "Hopeful" that 

 Mitchell painted was his best work, and the 

 spots the little gray had on the hoofs are 

 there true to life. 



The late C. B. Fish has left many excel- 

 lent canvases. "Dan Mace and Hopeful," in 

 which the little gray is shown at speed to a 

 red Portland cutter, is easily Fish's best 

 work. His reproduced work is often en- 

 countered, and "Ambassador," almost "face- 

 on"; "Axtell" and "Sunol" in their stalls 

 were well sold. In stall work he employed 

 neither blanket decorations, straw effect nor 

 aught else than grained wood sheathing, 

 and usually painted their foretops braided in 

 ribbons, just as they, of course, were, though 

 a rather stiff and unpleasant method of treat- 

 ment. Also, he ignored the purple lake 

 "sheen." 



In his portrait work of their drivers, 1 

 think Fish can scarce be faulted. His pose 

 of Dan Mace is'good, while the Doble, in his 

 "Nancy Hanks at Speed" piece, shows the 

 veteran with that well remembered half 

 smile, and one is impressed that it is Mr, 

 Doble and not some mere lay figure. 



The Albany horse painter, Vanzandt, did 

 some superb work. I saw him at Glens 

 Falls, twenty years ago, working on Delmar, 

 2:16 3-4, for the late W. E. Spier. In Frank 

 Ferguson's office I once saw a reallv clever 

 piece wherein John Murphy is riding some 

 trotter whose identity I just at the moment 

 do not recall. 



One of the grandest things in horse por- 

 traiture is the "head of a trotter" over the 

 mantel of the clubhouse at the Empire City 

 track, and yet I cannot recall the artist, a 

 woman, by the way, I think, wdio did it. 

 My impression is that it is a portrait of Nut- 

 shell, raced first by Charlie Sigournev and 

 later by E. R. Bowne. The work is rarely 

 executed and every detail as to harness, to 



