BASIL BLACKSHAW, H.R.H.A | THE FALL

Keys Gallery, Derry (Nat Gordon), from where purchased by the present owner in 1977

Brian Ferran (into.), Blackshaw - Painter, Nicholson & Bass Ltd., 1995, pl.79, illustrated p.116

The present work is a bold rendering of the drama and danger of horseracing - an element that appealed to Blackshaw's taste for risk being, as Eamonn Mallie has described him, 'an edge of society man.' The work relates to Blackshaw's masterpiece, Grand National (Foinavon's Year) from 1977 (private collection) and another version of The Fall, (sold these rooms, 27 September 2017, lot 370). These pictures reveal the chaos and calamity that can strike, and the threat to life and limb of the jockey. This is paramount in the present work, with the focus on the jockey being hurled forward as the horse tumbles - the only outcome is a painful landing to the turf. 

Sharing a lifelong passion for horses which began in his family's yard in Co. Down where his father was a trainer, Blackshaw's equestrian pictures are among his most celebrated works and cement his reputation firmly in the great tradition of equestrian painters stretching before him. Distinctive of Blackshaw's work is not only the clear affinity for the horse that is felt but also the radical manner in which he painted. He goes beyond a literal representation, content to summon the key parts rather than the whole through bold and expressive brushwork which seethe with energy and heightens the drama.