Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The Sporting Print
“Margrave” with James Robinson Up
John Frederick Herring Sr., 1833 · oil on canvas
What it is
Margrave stands on open turf with James Robinson in the saddle, signed and dated “J. F. Herring | 1833” in the lower left.
Why it matters
Margrave won the St Leger in 1832, and Herring painted the classic winners so often that his portraits became the turf’s official memory.
What to notice
The low horizon makes the horse fill the sky, and nothing else marks the ground but his shadow.
A season’s winner, fixed in oil.
Provenance
- Maker
- John Frederick Herring Sr., 1833
- Era
- The Georgian Turf (1750–1837)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Made
- 1833
- Horse
- Margrave
- Figure
- James Robinson
- Source
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection · via Wikimedia Commons
Publicity
Clear — the historic British turf (the Victorian jockeys, the Vanity Fair subjects): a long-deceased figure with no post-mortem right of publicity in play. Sold as history, freely and openly.
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 2026-11-01. Wikimedia Commons licence tag, read 2026-11-01: PD-Art|PD-old-100-1923|deathyear=1865. The maker died in 1865.
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.