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Description: | This is the earliest known painting of Chester, dating from between 1710 and 1734. Viewed from the south-west, it shows horse racing on the Roodee, the course being marked by posts and crowds of spectators lining the city walls. Another painting attributed to Tillemans offers the same view of Chester, but omits the racecourse and allows the river to sweep along the entire lower edge of the composition (Christie's London, 15 April 1988). Tillemans was born in Antwerp, where he trained as a copyist of seventeenth century Flemish peasant scenes and battle pictures. He came to England in 1708 and was patronised by some of the greatest landowners of his day. He developed a successful practice painting views of country houses, hunts and races, and was one of the creators of the sporting conversation piece. Tillemans seldom dated his paintings and his derivative manner is no guide to chronology. Tillemans was certainly in the Chester area while employed by the Earl of Derby for whom he painted, amongst others, two views of Knowsley, one of Knowsley racecourse and two views of Newmarket during the 1720s. The subject of a town rather than a country residence is unusual for Tillemans but the treatment of the subject as a backdrop to a horserace would certainly help to explain this. | Subjects: | place (Chester); everyday life (horse racing) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Tillemans, Peter (Flemish painter and draftsman, 1684-1734, active in Great Britain) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8697... | Go to resource |
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