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My regular readers know that there's not much I love more than a good estate sale, antique store, or yard sale with horse stuff in it. But sometimes we don't have to rescue used horse-related stuff -- we just have to appreciate it.
Recently I went to an estate $ale in Brentwood (West Los Angeles) that I knew for sure I could not afford. But I did want to at least go by the sale and say hello to Plover in person before it was too late.
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The Thoroughbred horse Plover (foaled 1839, by Royal Oak x Destiny, by Centaur) was the subject of a painting by English artist Thomas Woodward (1801-1852). Owned and registered in France, Plover was renowned as the winner of the 1842 French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club); the artist Woodward was a friend of Benjamin West and Edward Landseer.
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| From British Racing Prints, 1700-1940, by Charles Lane. Source: Internet Archive. |
British newspaper accounts of the day tell us that Plover's owner, the Comte Edouard de Perregaux, commissioned the portrait after Plover's big win. His portrait was framed in Paris, and the small plaque on the front, in French, gives his short history.
Sadly, Plover was reported to be unsound after the race, and I can't find much more information about him.
But wasn't he handsome?
Plover's owner at the time of his win, M. le Comte, was a member of Le Jockey Club de Paris, but is better remembered for his interesting personal life than for his race horses. If you look him up online, you'll see that the Count was briefly married to the courtesan Marie Duplessis before she left him for the novelist Alexandre Dumas the younger. He, in turn, fictionalized her as Marguerite Gautier in his novel La Dame aux Camelias. Later, Giuseppe Verdi turned the story into his opera "La Traviata." After she left Dumas fils, Duplessis seems to have become the love interest of composer Franz Lizst before she died young, yes, of tuberculosis.
Plover's portrait was priced at much more than my 2024 tax refund, so I had to leave him there for someone else to buy. I hope Plover ends up in a good home where someone will appreciate him, hopefully in a public museum where more people can appreciate him, and Woodward's artistry.
But, in case he does fall off the public radar, at least we have a photo of our old friend Plover to appreciate and enjoy.
Photos of the painting by the author. Certain images in this post may be provided under the Fair Use provision in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. "Fair Use" specifically allows for the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes only.
