Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The Sporting Print
Five Steeplechasers, with a River in the Middle Distance and a Red Flag on the Horizon
Henry Thomas Alken, oil on canvas, c.1830s · oil on canvas
What it is
Five steeplechasers race across open country toward a red flag marking the line on the skyline, a river crossing still ahead of them.
Why it matters
Early steeplechases were run flag to flag over unenclosed country rather than around a fixed track, and Alken keeps both hazards in view — the water, the marker — true to how the sport was actually ridden.
What to notice
the gap already opening between the leading pair and the three horses trailing behind.
The flag doesn't care who gets there first, only that someone does.
Provenance
- Maker
- Henry Thomas Alken, oil on canvas, c.1830s
- Era
- The Georgian Turf (1750–1837)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Made
- 1835
- Source
- Harris Museum (P1425.2)
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 3× from the surviving 1200×879 scan by AI enhancement (Claid smart-enhance), prepared for the considered detail of a print viewed at distance. The source record above is unchanged — the enhancement serves the wall, not the archive.
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the work’s own year of publication. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-20.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
More from the Stable Wall
Steeplechasing — The Start
‘Elis’, Winner of the St Leger, 1836
Fores’s National Sports — The Run In
The Trotting Mare Nancy Hanks
Elsewhere in the family
- The Links — the other morning religion.
- Painted Lineage — the bloodline, beside the family line.
- Painted Earth — home ground as a period map.