Schwanfelder was an animal painter of German ancestry but born in Leeds, where he spent most of his working life. He was made Animal Painter to George IV in 1815, presumably as a result of the success of his ‘Malcolm Arabian’ (see below).

This is one of a set three horse paintings in the collection, all signed and dated 1814: a single portrait of a racehorse, the ‘Malcolm Arabian’ (OM 1069, 400529), and a pair of slightly smaller format of unidentified or imaginary horses (OM 1070-71, 404368-9), including this picture.

A chestnut horse, facing to the left, its right foreleg raised, standing in a paddock with a wooden fence bordering the left of the composition and trees on the right and above the fence. This work has the same nervous character as the horse paintings of James Ward (1769-1859), an effect which derives in both cases from Stubbs's many depictions of attacked or menaced horses dating from the 1760s.

Signed and dated: ‘C. H. Schwanfelder 1814’