How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY). This image can be used in any way, for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
One of the most impressive pictures in the collection of Doncaster Museum Service, and certainly the most heavily populated, is this painting of a horse sale by Myles Birket Foster and Lowes Cato Dickinson. Painted in 1885, the picture shows a view of the Tattersall Sales Ring, which was situated on land near the site later occupied by Doncaster College in the Waterdale area of Doncaster. Surrounding the sales ring is a crowd of the great and good of the racing world, fashionably dressed and ready to bid for the horses. Containing portraits of 149 people, the picture is what is known as a ‘subscription painting’. This means that everyone included in the painting had paid to be depicted. The more money they paid, the more prominent their position in the painting! The picture is a real who’s who of everyone of importance associated with racing at that time.
A notice in the local newspaper at the time stated that the picture was going to be painted, and that it would “contain the portraits of all the leading owners, breeders, and trainers as well as many of the frequenters of this busy scene, where may be found, year by year, a gathering of every one of note connected with horses.”
On display in the gallery next to the painting is a 'key' explaining who all the characters in the painting are.
Title
Yearling Sale at Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Date
c.1885
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 127 x W 256 cm
Accession number
DONMG : 656.75
Acquisition method
transferred from Doncaster Mansion House, 1975
Work type
Painting