The Racehorse George M. Patchen

Period1857

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions27.3 × 34.5 in. (69.3 × 87.6 cm)

InscribedInscribed lower center, "GEO: M. PATCHEN / Trotted at Newton, Sussex Co. N. J. with American Star, and Woful, one mile and repeat. Time: 2:38; 2:33 1/2. / Presented to John Buckley, for his Son, Dunning Buckley, By the Sussex Co Agricultural Society. 1857."

SignedSigned lower right, "Painted by Chas. S. Humphreys / Camden, N. J."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineMuseum Collection

Object number1984.539

DescriptionDepiction in an oval format of a chestnut horse harnessed to a white-painted four-wheeled sulky moving from left to right in the foreground being driven by a male with long gray sideburns wearing brown trousers, black shoes, white shirt, gray vest, green tie, and a black/brown cap. The background shows the racecourse at Newton, Sussex County, with six horses being exercised or drawing vehicles, throngs of people lining the track or seated in bleachers, two small and two large tents flying American flags, other structures such as a wooden judge's stand and a row of houses on the left, and a landscape background. At the center of the track is a flagpole with a banner that reads, "Sussex Co. Agricultural Society." A steam locomotive pulling a passenger train appears just beyond the edge of the fairgrounds in the right distance. The day is a sunny one, with a few clouds in the sky.
Curatorial RemarksArtist Charles S. Humphreys was born in 1818 in Moorestown, Burlington County, NJ. By age nineteen, he had moved to Camden, where his first studio stood behind a harness shop. Beginning about 1853, he made a specialty of painting horses and horse races. He lived and worked in Camden until 1880, when he and his wife retired to Long Branch. He died there on 24 October 1880. Over the course of his forty-three year career, Humphreys was successful and recognized for the quality of his work. The Association's painting was exhibited in 1857 by Humphreys at the Sussex County Agricultural Society and at Cochran House, an inn, both in Newton. In 1877, the painting was again exhibited in the business windows of his patron, Charles S. Caffrey, a builder of carriages and wagons.NotesThe champion trotting racehorse George M. Patchen was born in the spring of 1849 on the farm of W. H. Sickles on Pleasant Valley Road in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro Township, Monmouth County. His mother was an unknown mare belonging to Richard Carman of Westchester County, NY, wintering at the Sickles farm. Patchen was sired by Cassius M. Clay. The colt was named after a New York City newspaper executive. From 1859 to 1868, Patchen held the record for the mile. The horse died in 1864 and was buried at the Union Course in the Woodhaven Section of Queens, NY. For a time in the early years of the 20th century, the Freehold Raceway was named the George M. Patchen Track. Currier & Ives issued three lithographs of Patchen, but he has never been inducted into the Hall of Fame of Trotting Horses.

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