‘Lord Clermont’s horse, Johnny’
This lithograph, hung on the north wall of the upstairs guest bedroom, depicts ‘Lord Clermont’s horse, Johnny.’ The Lordship of Clermont was a title created in 1770 in the Peerage of Ireland and bestowed upon William Fortescue, an Irish politician and horseracing enthusiast. This lithograph, gifted to Dr. James Lincoln Huntington by a patient, was etched by Thomas Buford based off of the original 1776 painting by English artist Francis Sartorius. Sartorius, active from the 1750s through his death in 1804, belonged to a family of artists specializing in equestrian scenes including his father, John Sartorius, and son John Nott Sartorius. Francis is best known for his extensive collection of paintings of Eclipse, an 18th-century English racehorse famous for providing the foundation for the modern Thoroughbred horse breed. Although the Lord Clermont William Fortescue’s Johnny never achieved such fame, Sartorius’ original painting and a colored lithograph of the image currently reside in the British Museum archives.