If you don't know it, I think I was born a natural cowgirl...lover of horses. Laying in bed this morning I was thinking about what I wanted to do on my blog next. I thought about my horse collection. I decided to share those with you. So for the next few blogs I'm going to show you a few of the things I love. I collect horse figurines. I also have a number of older prints of horses. Some of the figurines are packed away. A year or so ago I "staged" my condo to sell it so many of my beloved items were packed away. Some of my horses included. So some that I will show you are older and some I have more newly acquired. Most I don't remember where they came from...I just love them.
The first one I want to show you is a print I purchased at an auction. I actually had someone bid on it as I was unable to attend the auction. It is in color on very thin paper. The actual picture and frame are very old. The horses are fabulous and you may have seen this print before. THere is history to the original painting.
When I researched the painting, the following is what I found...
Pharaoh's Horses Print by J F Herring I am pleased to offer in this auction a new (reproduction) version of the Desert Arabian Horse painting Pharaoh's Horses!! The print size is 15" x 15". The original Pharaoh's Horses painting can be dated back many, many years ago. I have found a new version of this very famous print. As you can note from the picture, this print is produced in FULL COLOR, instead of the familiar black and white in which this print has been found in the past. This new high quality print is printed on a heavy paper, has never been displayed and is from a smoke free building. In researching about this piece of art I found some intriguing information in a back issue of Tattoo Magazine; Skin & Ink. Palmer Utterback has written a wonderfully researched article chronicling all about this painting. The following are excerpts from this article. "In biblical times, horses, were a symbol of wealth, status and, in warfare, power. A joint German-Egyptian archeological team has reported a discovery of horse stables, which housed over 400 horses, on the edge of the Nile Delta. The stables have been linked to pharaoh Ramses II who ruled more than 3,000 years ago. Such stables presumably boarded war horses similar to those used to draw the pharaoh's chariots in pursuit of the Israelites into the Red Sea. While the galloping steeds of Pharaoh's Horses convey a sense of power, majesty and grace, the implied reference to Exodus 14 suggests a symbolic warning against the singular pursuit of a tragic course with regard to the consequences: "The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen-the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived (Exodus 14:28)." I obtained some more fascinating historical information from Mary Lou Walbergh. J.F. Herring, the creator of Pharaoh's Horses, actually owned the Arabian stallion which he used as his model for many of his paintings including Pharaoh's Horses. The stallion's name was Imaun, after the Imaum of Persia, who gave him along with three other purebred Arabs, to Queen Victoria. The Queen thought quite sensibly, that Imaun might prove to be too much horse for her, so she gave him to her Chief Clerk. This man immediately sold him at Tattersall's, the famed horse sales establishment which is in business to this very day. Herring bought him and kept him all of the rest of his very long life. Herring hired a trainer to train Imaun to lie down, to be "housebroken." This well respected trainer said the Imaun was the most brilliant horse with whom he had ever worked. Herring loved Imaun so much, that it is quite possible to pick out the horse he painted using him as a model, because of the love and care taken with every stroke of the brush. Imaun is all three heads in The Pharaoh's Horses, as well as in many other Herring paintings. |
Love this print! Love these horses!
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