Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.179a
Gallery Label:
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.\n\n Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
