Catalogue entry
T01887 JOHN BARHAM DAY WITH HIS SONS JOHN AND WILLIAM ON NEWMARKET HEATH 1841
Inscribed ‘Harry Hall/Newmarket 1841’ b.l.
Oil on canvas, 24 7/8×30 1/8 (63×76.5)
Bequeathed by Alan Evans to the National Gallery and transferred to the Tate Gallery 1974
Coll: ..., sold Christie's 21 May 1948 (107 as ‘A Starter, conversing with two trainers’), bt. Ackermann; Alan Evans, 1958
Three generations of the Day Family were trainers and jockeys during the nineteenth century. T. 1887 shows the best-known member of the family, John Barham Day (1794–1860) at the age of 47, mounted on a chestnut pony, seen in profile facing his sons William, mounted on a bay, and John standing beside his brother.
John Barham Day, born in 1794 at Houghton Down, Stockbridge, Hampshire, son of John Day, racing adviser to the Prince Regent, began his racing career as apprentice at Newmarket to Smallman, the Prince Regent's trainer. As a jockey, he won the Oaks four times and the St. Leger twice, his last Classic win being at the age of 46 on Lord George Bentinck's Crucifix in the Oaks in 1840. He established the Day racing stables at Danebury near Stockbridge on the Hampshire Downs, where his patrons included the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Grafton, Lord Palmerston and, until a notorious rift in 1841, Lord George Bentinck (Disraeli's ‘Lord Paramount of the Turf’)… (read more)
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