"The Derby, 1848"

by Charles Hunt

Print from an engraving

Paper Size: 39 x 30 ins (98 x 75 cm)
Image Size: 34 x 25 ins (85 x 62 cm)

This is No.2 in Hunt's Series of National Races and it portrays the winner, Surplice, and the runners-up Springy Jack and Shylock. Sporting prints caught the imagination of the public to such an extent that there was great pressure to publish quickly, especially if a particular event was to be depicted. One wonders therefore how detailed the portraits of horses and riders in these prints needed to be. One suspects that as long as the colour of the horses' coats and other characteristics were correct, and the details of the jockeys' silks were accurate, the artist could - and did - take short cuts. His was a form of journalism which probably precluded his assiduous visual recording of every separate sporting event. It seems certain that the adapting of single plates to depict different events was a not uncommon practice