Benjamin Marshall

Benjamin Marshall was born in 1767 and brought up in Leicestershire, where his family were close friends of the Ferneley family, which was also to produce a number of eminent sporting artists. Marshall studied under the famous portrait painter L F Abbott but turned from human to animal painting when he saw Gilpin's famous 1793 Academy picture, The Death of a Fox. Thereafter, he made a successful living as a painter of hunting and horseracing scenes, although he continued to paint excellent portraits. Perhaps Marshall's most famous work is his classic painting of the famous race between ‘Sir Joshua' and ‘Filho da Puta' on Newmarket Heath in 1816. Marshall lived in Newmarket from 1812 to 1825 and was severely injured in 1819 in a coaching accident. His painting began to decline in standard after this date and he took increasingly to sporting journalism. Marshall's patrons included King George III, King George IV and many members of the racing aristocracy. Undoubtedly one of the fathers of British equestrian art, he died in 18