Derby winner stabled in collection founded by 'mystery man of the British turf'

The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle has backed a winner with its latest acquisition, an oil painting of a successful racehorse owned by the museum's founder, John Bowes.

Bowes, still universally recognised as one of the most successful stud owners and racehorse breeders of the 19th Century, was a keen racegoer known as the ‘mystery man of the British turf’.

Around 1852, the year his horse Daniel O’Rourke won the Epsom Derby, Bowes commissioned leading equine portraitist Harry Hall to paint the ‘little pony’, as he was affectionately known owing to his lack of stature. The painting, Mr John Bowes’ Daniel O’Rourke with Frank Butler Up, depicts, as implied, the horse with jockey Butler on board.

An oil painting on canvas, it was recently bought at auction by The Bowes Museum for £18,000, with the support of the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Art Fund, the national fundraising charity for works of art; and the Friends of The Bowes Museum.

The work, which measures 51.5 x 65.5cms, also depicts a distinguished gentleman in top hat and tails, who is holding the horse’s rug. This is probably a Mr Markwell, recorded as leading in Bowes’ winners during the 1850s.

Equine portraiture was in great demand during the 19th Century, not only to adorn the homes of gentlemen who wished to immortalise their winning thoroughbreds, but prints were widely sought after by keen followers of the sport and by publicans who wished to decorate their premises. 

Each year Hall produced paintings which were engraved and published to commemorate the winners of the Derby, St Leger, Gold Cup and other classic races. A regular contributor to The Field, The Sporting Magazine and the Illustrated London News, he was in effect a sporting journalist in paint.

Daniel O’Rourke was under 15 hands high, yet Bowes’ trainer John Scott, and Butler the jockey, thought highly of him. And although he’d run a disappointing race in the 2000 Guineas, they held fast to their opinion that he stood a good chance of winning the Derby.

The day of the race dawned with incessant rain, which didn’t lift until just before the start of the race – yet despite this and the horse running at odds of 25–1, well down in the betting against 26 contenders, he justified the trust put in him by gamely battling it out to cross the finish line half a length in front of his nearest rival.

The Museum’s Keeper of Fine Art, Emma House, said: “Whilst equine portraits regularly come up for sale, many of them were produced quickly after the finish of a race and therefore lack the quality of this painting. Hall has taken great care in the depiction of the horse, portraying in great detail Daniel O’Rourke’s markings and likeness. The portrait details of Frank Butler and Mr Markwell are also particularly fine.

“Together with the detailed landscape setting, this is a particularly fine equestrian painting of one of our founder’s most important horses, and it adds to our significantly growing collection of John Bowes memorabilia.”

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund said: “It is so gratifying to be able to help museums buy work at auction. With the connection to John Bowes and his love of all things equestrian, this painting has found its natural home.”

The painting, which is now on show, will complement The Bowes Museum’s existing works while enabling the museum to explore Bowes’ racing successes in further detail.

The Bowes Museum was created over 100 years ago by an extraordinary couple, John and JoséphineBowes.  Together they built up the greatest private collection of fine and decorative arts in the North of England and constructed a magnificent building to house them in.  The collection contains thousands of objects including furniture, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and many other items covering an extensive range of European styles and periods.

Coal Free IU finances 8 solar panels at IMU

Eight solar panels producing two kilowatts of clean energy were installed on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union on Thursday.

The panels are each 250 watts and are located on the left side of the Whittenberger Auditorium entrance, said Jill Minor, Mann Plumbing Inc. solar website designer and School of Public and Environmental Affairs dual masters candidate.

“On the back of the panels, we use micro-inverters, and the panels create direct current electricity like a battery, and the micro-inverters change the direct current into alternating current,” Minor said.

The IU Student Foundation awarded the Sierra Club’s Coal Free IU project with a $12,000 grant to fund the installation of the solar panels.

University Engineer Jeff Kaden said while the grant wasn’t a lot of money to purchase these panels, the product the University purchased was good.

“Hopefully, this is the first of many projects that we can do like this, and hopefully, the next ones will be bigger,” he said.

Mann Plumbing Inc./MPI Solar installed the array, which took about nine hours, Minor said.

“The biggest challenge was definitely getting the panels up on the roof,” she said. “There was no direct access.”

However, because of a slight change in the way the micro inverters are connected, the solar panels aren’t fully operational yet, Kaden said.

“There are a couple electrical items that need to be completed, and quite frankly, it has not been sunny since they have been up so they couldn’t have been producing much energy anyway,” he said.

The amount of energy the IMU uses every day will affect how much of the difference is noticeable, Kaden said.

“The building uses thousands of kilowatts a day so there is going to be very little noticeable effect, quite frankly,” he said. “This is a very interesting demonstration project, and there will be a web-based opportunity for people to see the production, but as far as actually affecting usage of electricity in the Union building, it will not be that noticeable.”

Coal Free IU President Lauren Kastner said the club hopes for the solar panels to be functional by the end of next week and to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony to flip the switch on and connect the panels to the building.

“It is seriously such a huge move for students. It is both student run and funded, and it sends a huge message to the University that students are ready for clean energy,”
she said.

There will be a live monitor in the IMU for people to see how much energy is being used and how much sunlight is hitting the panels, Kastner said.

“We want to use them as an educational tool,” she said. “They are for the good of the campus. We want to make sure people have the access and use it as a learning tool. It is an onsite demonstration of clean energy not only for a better campus but education, research and awareness.”

Kastner said IU needs to take the clean energy seriously as 16 other universities have already made a public timeline to go off coal.

“It is so important that IU is on the path of clean energy now,” she said. “They need to start taking the competition seriously if they want to maintain progress and  sustainability.”