Early 18th northern European school - Equestrian portrait of

Early eighteenth-century northern European school - Equestrian portrait of a fashionably dressed young woman, black chalk on paper with prominent chain lines; stray marks of brown ink.

Our drawing is fluently executed in black chalk, the horse seen from the rear, the woman turning backwards to reveal a gentle smile. Her status is conveyed by the groomed horse that she commands with a thin whip held confidently against her hip; her fashionability is shown by her hat and riding habit trimmed with fur, its back riding up over the saddle. A high-heeled boot pushes against a stirrup. The horse’s mane streams to the left, blown by a gust coming from the direction to which the woman turns - her attention caught, perhaps, by a shout carried on the wind. Our drawing is not without wit: the horse’s rear with cut and bound tail displays that the young woman is astride a stallion.

The sole focus on the horse and rider in our drawing, made without visible corrections, strongly suggests that it served as a study for another medium, either a painting or a print. The contours around the woman’s boot appear to have been strengthened, perhaps to transfer the composition. Eighteenth-century artists would frequently provide print studies in black or red chalk to be translated into the more graphic style of prints.

In terms of attribution our drawing is likely to derive from a north European, French or German artistic milieu. German artists such as Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767) and Wilhelm Kobell (1766-1855) who were famous for their equestrian portrayals, disseminating their compositions in prints that frequently showed single horses in wide varieties of settings with and without riders and with and without saddlery. A French eighteenth-century artist similarly renowned for his equestrian subjects is the battle painter Charles Parrocel (1688-1752), seen in his etching of a cavalry rider of 1737 (British Museum, inv.no. 1861,1012.107). Our artist

The quality of our drawing ensured its survival as a stand alone object beyond its immediate use as a study of either a painting or print (or both). It also clearly demonstrates the eighteenth-century interest in fashion and horses, the contemporary viewer alert to the details of the woman’s dress and the calibre of her steed.

This fine drawing is ready to hang and enjoy within a very attractive lined mound and within aa hand carved and glued 18th century fame which is itself a work of art.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1861-1012-107

Dimensions sheet: 27cm x 16cm. Dimensions framed: 48cm x 38cm.