Portrait of Lexington
ca. 1857
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson, Martha Jackson Memorial Collection
Accession Number
1980.137.93
Tags
About this artwork
The famous racehorse Lexington was born in Kentucky in 1850 and went on to sire more winning horses than any other American thoroughbred before or since. Thomas J. Scott painted this image while living in Kentucky in the 1850s, when Lexington was at his peak. In an article for Turf, Field and Farm, Scott described the stallion's impressive stature: "Lexington was without a peer . . . fifteen hands three inches in height, of very extreme width from the point of one shoulder to the other, broad sh...