The National Steeplechase Museum Art Collection
by Lauren Allen
Every year, thousands of people visit the National Steeplechase Museum in Camden, South Carolina on the grounds of the historic Springdale Race Course. The museum houses an exquisite collection of art, from watercolors, oil paintings, and pen-and-ink drawings by noteworthy equestrian artists, to racing memorabilia, including some invaluable silver cups. There are bronze sculptures by the Hungarian artist George Gách and by Caroll K. Bassett, a National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame jockey and racehorse trainer. And, not to be overlooked, on the lawn in front of the museum stands a life-size bronze statue of Lonesome Glory, the five-time American Champion Steeplechaser and multiple Carolina and Colonial Cup winner.
Wesley Faulkenberry is the museum’s curator, responsible for overseeing the collection, preparing new exhibits and even giving tours to visitors. “Some people who visit the museum are horsemen that are coming in to learn more about the history of the sport, and some are looking to see old faces that they maybe grew up with or raced with, and we also get a fair number of people that have kids that are into show jumping and things like that, and are just curious about what else is out there in the horse world.”
The museum’s permanent collection is composed primarily of artwork that has been donated by the people who originally commissioned it to commemorate a champion horse. Often, the donation has been bestowed along with other memorabilia such as silks worn by the horse’s jockey or trophies that the horse may have won, which allows for interesting multimedia displays.
“We have a number of trophies that are also extremely fabulous that are works of art in themselves. I think silversmithing is a bit of a lost art these days,” says Faulkenberry. The museum houses both the Carolina Cup and the Colonial Cup trophies, which are awarded at the spring and fall Camden Steeplechase meets respectively. “They stay in the museum 364 days a year and then they come down on race day where they’re kept under armed guard,” he says.
The trophies are presented to the winning owners, who hold them to have their pictures taken, and then are returned to the museum to be cleaned and secured. The sterling silver Carolina Cup is particularly impressive. It was crafted in Ireland in 1704 by the renowned silversmith Alexander Sinclair, and is one of the oldest cups in use as a sports trophy in this country today.
One of Faulkenberry’s favorites in the collection is a series of watercolors painted by the American equestrian artist and illustrator Paul Desmond Brown (1893-1958). The paintings were commissioned by a restaurant owner in New York to celebrate the British Grand National, a historic and grueling steeplechase race held annually in Aintree, England. There are 17 original watercolors in the collection, an artist’s statement, and the ticket Brown used to attend one of the races.
“When the owner closed down the restaurant and sold their house and moved into a smaller space, they found out that there was a steeplechase museum down in South Carolina, so they reached out and donated the paintings to us and now they are in our library on permanent display,” says Faulkenberry.
The museum is currently readying for a Sam Robinson art show to celebrate the 50th running of the Colonial Cup. The show will feature approximately 50 paintings that will be available to the public for purchase. Robinson, who paints primarily in oil or gouache, lives in Maryland and is the official artist for the National Steeplechase Association.
Robinson has selected a retrospective from his work over the past two decades of capturing moments in steeplechasing. The boxes of his paintings are (appropriately) making their way to Camden on a horse trailer. Robinson enjoys painting steeplechasing and fox hunting, saying that they’re two sides of the same coin.
“You have a lot of the same people out hunting; you almost always see the big steeplechasers out there getting exercise over the winter, and many of the race venues are near the kennels or part of the hunt territory.
“On race day you get all this action, and you get a beautiful landscape setting… It’s an endlessly challenging and exciting subject.” Robinson says that he likes to set up near the paddock where all of the horses and people move through. He enjoys pushing his technical skills capturing the horses, the crowds and the tents in small, quick studies as well as in large-scale works.
The art show “Reflections on American Steeplechasing” opens at the museum on the evening of Friday, November 21 with a pre-race cocktail party. Tickets are $75 for nonmembers and $50 for museum members. The show will run through the end of the year, and pieces range in value from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Robinson’s art will be available to view and purchase online as well.
