Overall: 56cm (22in) x 67cm (26.5in)
Oil on canvas. Portrait of an officer’s charger equipped with the full dress horse furniture of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards for the period 1868-1881, comprising hunting pattern saddle with regulation blue girth covered with Ukrainian black lambskin edged in regimentally specific red scalloped cloth, over the dragoon style shabraque of authorised pattern, being bullion embroidered with the Queen Victoria crown, over the Irish harp and designation ‘4’ ‘DG’ at the hindquarters and crowned VR cypher at the forequarters covering the wallets, complete with officers’ pattern bridle fitted with regimental ear and bit bosses, and head chain; set in a courtyard with a a long-haired lurcher and Manchester-terrier. Initialled and dated lower left ‘C.G. / 1869’. Signed and dated lower right 'C. Goldsmith / Newhaven /1871’. The reverse inscribed ‘Officer's Charger / 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards / Painted by C. Goldsmith / Newhaven / Sussex / 1870'. Canvas size: 40.7cm (16in) x 50.8cm (20in). Contained in gilt wood frame.
Collender Goldsmith (1832-c1900) was the son of William Goldsmith, of Hull, Gent, and was employed as a ‘Searcher in Her Majesty’s Customs’. In 1868 he was transferred to Newhaven as First Class Examining Officer, and from there also practised as an artist, specialising in equestrian and sporting subjects, and accepting commissions for horse portraiture from military officers and local landowners. In 1869 the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards were stationed nearby at Brighton and occupied Preston Barracks, on the Lewes Road. The courtyard setting of this portrait is somewhat grander than that of the Napoleonic barracks and is perhaps the family seat of the charger’s own, complete with heraldic banner. CG exhibited in provincial art shows and received complimentary comment from the press.