Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The Sporting Print
Steeplechasers Jumping a Fence
Henry Thomas Alken, oil on canvas, c.1830s · oil on canvas
What it is
Steeplechasers hang at the top of a fence, forelegs tucked tight, turf still flying from the takeoff behind them.
Why it matters
Alken worked in steeplechasing's earliest years, when the sport still ran over whatever natural country a course could offer rather than a built track, and the jump itself — not the finish — carried the picture's drama.
What to notice
the exact fold of the foreleg knees at the fence's highest point, an instant before the drop.
A fence has only one right way over, and the horse finds it in the air.
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 (P1425.3)
Print master
The largest formats are printed from a master enlarged 3× from the surviving 1200×880 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.