`Western Australian', winner of the Triple Crown in 1853, with Frank Butler up and Mr John Scott, trainer, and the head lad, in a landscape

West Australian (1850–1870) was a British thoroughbred racehorse and sire. His racing career, which lasted from October 1852 until June 1854, was eclipsed in 1853 when he won the 2000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby the St Leger and the Ascot Gold Cup, and was retrospectively recognized as the first Triple Crown winner. This painting, completed in the same year, presumably commemorates that success. Western Australian was owned and bred by John Bowes (1811-85), the art collector and a distant relation of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and trained by John Scott.
Harry Hall, the father to Sydney Prior Hall, was sporting painter and illustrator who worked in London and Newmarket. He was a prolific and successful artist much in demand by the leading trainers and racehorse owners of the day. Clearly working within the traditions of horse painting that ran from George Stubbs in the 18th century to Sir Alfred Munnings in the 20th, his work was considered as 'strikingly modern' when compared with many of his contemporaries.
A version is recorded at Glamis Castle, dated 1853, 71 x 91.5 cm (K546). A similar painting in the Bowes Museum of Mr John Bowes's horse ' Daniel O Rouke' with Frank Butler up, c. 1852, 51.5 x 65.5.