Charles HUNT after A. P. de Prades

Racing Cracks

52 x 32 inches

Equestrian images of this scale are quite extraordinary and represent a tremendous feat of technological skill on behalf of the engraver and printer alike. It is a tour de force for Charles Hunt who was one of the foremost sporting engravers of his generation. In this remarkable scene many of the leading race horses of the day and their jockeys are depicted in one field. Amongst the illustrious horses depicted are some of the most famous winners of the age including West Australian, Newminster, Nancy and The Flying Dutchman. Charles Hunt was born in 1806 and spent his life working in London as an eminent aquatint engraver of sporting and topographical prints. He engraved after all the most famous sporting artists of his day and produced some of the most accomplished work of the period. This extraordinary print represents the apogee of his work and shows the heights to which aquatint engraving had reached by the early Victorian period.