Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Pictorial records possess a value which in some departments of history is even greater than that of the written word. The most minutely detailed description of the writer conveys less to us than the brush of the artist, and there are matters which only the painter can save from oblivion. Social history would be incomplete without its artistic exponents ; and the history of British field-sports perhaps owes more than that of other institutions to the painter. More especially is this the case in relation to the Turf, the Hunting-field and the Road. The details which by reason of their absolute familiarity or contemporary insignificance escape the chronicler are perpetuated by the artist.
We learn more concerning the dress and equipment of our forefathers on the race-course, in the hunting- field, on the coach-box, in covert and by the river-side from a glance at an old painting than we can glean from perusal of many volumes. More than this, old portraits of thoroughbreds, hunters, hacks, coach-horses, heavy draught-horses, and domestic cattle, serve a use- ful purpose which is apt to be overlooked. These pictures viewed in chronological order show us the various stages through which the four-footed servants of man have passed ere they attained their present states of development ; and they may be of service in indicating how breeders should proceed in order to eliminate defects and secure more perfect adaptability to our present requirements.
The Horse as it was a century or more ago was not as it is to-day. If we are not wedded to our own opinions concerning equine characteristics of a hundred and fifty years back, we can learn much from pictorial records. There are some who look upon George Stubbs ’ portraits of race-horses and exclaim "Impossible !" These incredulous ones who disdain what they can know nothing of, may be reminded that great changes have been brought about in the thoroughbred horse since Stubbs lived and painted. Are they aware, for example, that the average height of the race-horse in the middle of the eighteenth century was one hand and a half less than the average height of the race-horse at the end of the nineteenth century ?
Admiral the Hon. Henry John Rous, the greatest authority on race-horses and racing, in Baiiys Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, i860, writes : "A century ago race-horses were about the average of 14 hands 2 inches. . . . . I attribute the great growth and size of the present thoroughbred horses to the care which is bestowed upon them in early life."
The thoroughbred ever since the middle of the last century has been increasing in stature, on an average one inch in twenty-five years, till we now seldom proclaim him a race-horse of the first class unless he stands 15.3 to 16 hands. A worthy painter therefore deserves that we should invest him with something of the character of the historian. The statements of tongue or pen, unhappily, are often capable of differing interpretations; but the painted record allows of little or no dispute. It is somewhat strange that no work has yet appeared which chronicles the names and performances of those artists who have devoted their talents to the portrayal of animal life and scenes of sport ; and it is with the view of supplying this blank that the following chapters have been compiled.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1900)

« La British Library signale un troisième volume, paru en 1911 chez le même éditeur, sous le titre Animal painters of England from the year 1600 (second series) ill. with thirty specimens of their paintings. , (sans autre renseignement). » Bibliothèque Mondiale du Cheval