Footnotes

Provenance
Anon. sale, Drouot Richelieu, Paris, 19 June 1998, lot 46.
Private collection, France.
With Richard Green, London.
Acquired from the above by 2003.
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, The Gilded Age Revisited: Property of a Distinguished American Collection, 2 February 2019, lot 867.
Property of a gentleman (acquired from the above sale).

Literature
Marie-Christine Renauld, L'univers d'Alfred De Dreux, 1810-1860, suivi du catalogue raisonné, Arles, 2008, part I, p. 28, illustrated; and part II, p. 69, no. MCR 301.

Alfred de Dreux was born in Paris in 1810 to an artistic family, his father Pierre-Anne de Dreux was an architect and his uncle, Pierre-Joseph Dedreux-Dorcy was a painter. It was from his uncle that de Dreux received his first lessons in art and during his youth accompanied him on frequent trips to the studio of Théodore Géricault. Géricault made several portraits of the young Alfred but it was the master's affinity with horses which would leave a lasting impression on the young protégé.

During the 1820s de Dreux continued his artistic education under the tutelage of Léon Cogniet. This lead to his debut entries to the Paris Salon in 1831, Cheval sautant un fossé and Intérieur d'écurie, both of which were greeted with much acclaim. In 1833 the Duc d'Orléans commissioned de Dreux to paint an equestrian portrait, the success of which lead to a series of paintings entitled Portraits de Chevaux, which included several depictions of horses owned by the Duc d'Orléans. De Dreux's prowess in capturing the equine form was much admired by his contemporaries, cementing his growing reputation as Géricault's natural successor.

In 1844 de Dreux was invited by King Louis-Philippe on his official visit to England, which he commemorated with a painting of the French King riding alongside Queen Victoria in Windsor Park. During this trip, de Dreux met Sir Edwin Landseer, another favourite painter of Queen Victoria, and would have encountered the work of prominent British equine painters of the period such as John Ferneley and John Frederick Herring, Snr. In 1848 de Dreux followed Louis-Philippe into exile in England and although he did return to France eventually, he frequently visited London. On these visits he received several commissions from members of the British aristocracy with whom he shared a passion for horses and hunting.