Bidspirit auction | Pair of Samuel Henry Gordon

Pair of Samuel Henry Gordon Alken Oil on Canvas Paintings - Title: The Start of the Epsom Derby & The Finish of the Epsom Derby Medium: Oil on Canvas Provenance: Christie's Auction; Sale 9794; Lot 55 Image: each 9 3/4” x 14” Frame: each 15 1/2” x 19” Condition: Some paint loss in the lower right corner and light craquelure seen throughout. Some loss to the frames.   Artist Bio: Samuel Henry Gordon Alken (1810–1894), known professionally as Henry Alken Junior, was the eldest artist son of Henry Thomas Alken and the third generation of a London family that dominated British sporting art for the better part of a century. He specialized in horses — hunting, racing, coaching and winter coaching scenes — and contributed the horses to George Augustus Sala's sixty-foot panorama of the Duke of Wellington's funeral procession in 1852. He signed “H. Alken, ” identical in form to his father's signature, which is the long-standing source of confusion between the two; the father died in 1851, so later-dated canvases so signed are the son's. Working in pairs and sets — a hunt or a coaching journey told in stages — was characteristic of both Alkens.