Charles Cooper Henderson

Mail Coach in a Snowstorm

c.1835–40

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Not on display

Artist: Charles Cooper Henderson 1803–1877
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 454 x 765 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by Mrs F. Ambrose Clark through the British Sporting Art Trust 1982
Reference: T03429

Catalogue entry

T03429 MAIL COACH IN A SNOWSTORM c. 1835–40

Oil on canvas 17 7/8 × 30 1/8 (331 × 612)
Inscribed ‘CH’ on mail-bag to right of coach-top
Bequeathed by Mrs F. Ambrose Clark from the collection of the late F. Ambrose Clark through the British Sporting Art Trust 1982
Prov: ...; E.J. Rousuck; F. Ambrose Clark by 1941; his widow Mrs F. Ambrose Clark
Exh: Outdoor England, Century Club, New York, February–April 1941 (5); Tate Gallery, August–September 1982, and York City Art Gallery, March–September 1984, with other paintings from Mrs F. Ambrose Clark's Bequest (no catalogue); Paintings exhibited by the British Sporting Art Trust, Vestey Gallery, National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket, April–December 1986 (unnumbered, repr.)
Lit: [E.J. Rousuck], The F. Ambrose Clark Collection of Sporting Paintings, privately printed, New York 1958, p.121, repr. p.120

Snow has obliterated the lettering on the coach, leaving its destination vague and only its royal coat of arms visible. A date of circa 1835–40 or earlier is suggested (in correspondence) by Colonel Charles Lane, who notes that ‘the great snowstorm of 1836’ seems to have prompted Pollard early in 1837, and Cooper Henderson about the same time, to paint snow-bound coaching scenes.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions, London 1986