Lot 558: JOSHUA DIGHTON (1831-1908) The Rejected with the

JOSHUA DIGHTON (1831-1908) The Rejected with the Jockey Mr. G. Abington Baird, a portrait of horse and jockey in a racecourse setting Oil on canvas, 59 x 49cm The tempestuous affair between ''The Squire'' and ''The Jersey Lily'' provided an endless topic of conversation for high and low society alike as he succeeded H.H.The Prince of Wales as the recipient of the favours of the most celebrated beauty of her day. His educational achievements were meagre even if he did attend Eton and Cambridge. Aged 25 when he won the Derby with Merry Hampton, his passion for riding winners likewise far transcended his interest in mere ownership. It was for that reason that this most reclusive of men - no photograph of him has ever been traced - posed for this one painting only after coming of age. The horse, belonged to Johnny O'Neill, a leading professional gambler, and scored in the 1890 Lincolnshire Handicap. While in that instance Baird could not make the weight, he was the partner of The Rejected in thirteen of his twenty six career wins. For all his ability as a race rider, Baird was an obnoxious character, a drunken bully boy, who used his enormous wealth to buy himself out of trouble. The final act in the drama was played out in the same year in which Dighton completed this picture when Baird (aged 31) died of pneumonia in New Orleans where he was engaged in the promotion of a heavy weight title fight between Jem Hall and Bob Fitzsimons. Lily Langtry, cruising in the Mediterranean aboard his yacht the Whyte Lady, rushed back to London for the reading of the will. On arrival she was told that, contrary to her expectations, she did not figure in the disposal of what remained, just over three quarters of a million pounds, from two original family inheritances, aggregating three million pounds. Provenance: Johnny O'Neill / J J Parkinson (the picture was thrown in as ''luck penny'' when he bought The Rejected to stand at stud at The Curragh) / Dummons Slocock and by descent; from the estate of Tony Sweeney