"Carmelite" with jockey in blue silks up

JOHN FERNELEY JNR.

1815 – 1862

English School

“Carmelite” with jockey in blue silks up  

Oil on canvas

Signed, inscribed and dated 1850

48 x 63.5 cms

187/8 x 25 inches

Born in about 1815 at Melton Mowbray, he was the eldest son of the important sporting artist John E Ferneley. The latters other two children, Claude Lorraine and Sarah were also artists.

He spent his early life at Elgin Lodge and his father was a major influence on his artistic life and was in all probability his sole teacher. His father took him on trips to London and in 1832 to Durham and York where he later settled in about 1839.

John Ferneley Snr. had established a significant career as an equestrian artist in the old English tradition largely due to being a pupil of Ben Marshall. His son imitated him at first very closely but the bulk of his oeuvre shows a more marked nineteenth century prettier style. He produced equestrian hunting and military groups and single portraits, many on a large scale, (Christies sold a view of Hyde Park in 1989 for £49,500 which measured 30 x 60 inches.)

He died in Manchester without marrying and few records of his life have survived.