Charles Rosenberg after James Pollard

A Stage Coach

22 x 18 inches

Nineteenth century coaching prints are invariably depicted on the flat, thereby enabling the artist to show off the horses to their best. Here we have an amusing prospect of two stagecoaches negotiating a steep hill. We only have to look at the perspiring clergyman labouring up the hill on foot to appreciate the gradient. One coach makes its way up the hill whilst the other descends and all eight horses are clearly struggling with the task. A plump, bonneted lady looks out from the ascending coach, no doubt delighted that she has no need to toil in the heat. Coaching inns, stables and repair yards would heve been a common sight along all the major turnpike roads in England at this time as passengers, post and goods were transported across the country. Rosenberg and Pollard produced a vast number of equestrian and sporting prints at this time, many of them very serious, so it's rather nice to see them having some fun with this image.