<< YCBA Home Yale Center for British Art Yale Center for British Art << YCBA Home

YCBA Collections Search

 
IIIF Actions
Creator:
Richard Ansdell, 1815–1885
Title:

The Caledonian Coursing Meeting

Former Title(s):

The Caledonian Coursing Meeting near the Castle of Ardrossan, March 1844 [1978, Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings, catalogue]

The Caledonian Coursing Meeting near the Castle of Ardrossan, the Isle of Arran in the Distance [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Date:
1844
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
61 1/8 × 119 15/16 inches (155.3 × 304.6 cm), Frame: 66 3/4 × 126 1/2 × 3 1/2 inches (169.5 × 321.3 × 8.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Signed and dated

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.179a
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
castle | club (association) | costume | dogs (animals) | estuary | field | greyhounds (breed) | horses (animals) | hunters | hunting | island | landscape | meeting | men | mountains | rabbits | riders, horseback | sporting art
Associated Places:
Ardrossan | Arran, Island of | Clyde, Firth of | North Ayrshire | Scotland | United Kingdom
Access:
Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:386
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

This vast painting represents a hare coursing competition organized by the Caledonian Coursing Club in Ayrshire, southwest Scotland, in March 18, 1844. It was commissioned by the club’s committee as a prize for the 1845 competition and was paid for with the entrance fees of over seventy participants. The most prominent figure is the club’s honorary secretary, Alexander Graham, riding the gray horse and carrying a red pennant. Graham is joined by his stewards: to the left, the Marquess of Douglas on a white horse; to the right, the Earl of Eglinton on a chestnut. The competing greyhounds occupy the foreground along with their handlers. John Gibson, owner of the victorious greyhound Violet, won the painting but a dispute arose. Violet had not been entered for competition by Gibson but by Allan Pollok, who took immediate legal action. Ownership of the painting was finally decided in Gibson’s favor by a court in 1848.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

Christie, Manson & Woods, Christie's sale catalogue : Fine sporting pictures and drawings : 25 April 1969, Christie's, London, April 25, 1969, p. 30, lot 102, Fiche B51 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 16-17, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, pp. 344-46, no. 379, pl. 43, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sotheby's sale catalogue : The Mr. and Mrs. Jack R. Dick collection of English sporting and conversation paintings part three : 23 April 1975, Sotheby's, Sotheby's, April 23, 1975, lot 100, Fiche B18 (YCBA) [YCBA]


If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.