Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Personality of the Month
for October 2008

Scott Leighton

Equine artist Scott Leighton was born in Auburn, Maine in 1847. Showing an early interest in horses and art, he took up the horse trade business at fourteen in order to support his artistic aspirations.

A trotting portrait by artist Scott Leighton

By the age of seventeen he had saved almost $2,000 with which he moved to Portland, ME to study under one of the leading landscape painters of the time, Harrison Bird Brown. During his time in Portland Leighton completed a number of horse portraits but, receiving a mere average of $2.50 per piece, he was reportedly forced to enter the "fancy furniture trade" to support himself.
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In the late 1870s, Leighton moved to Boston where his artistic ability was finally recognized. Contemporary critics praised his ability to portray a horse with anatomical accuracy and he was often referred to as the "Landseer of the United States."

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His work became well-known locally through art shows he participated in at the New England Manufacturers and Mechanics Institute in Boston; the National Academy of Design in New York City; and the Poland Spring Art Gallery in Poland Spring, ME. His work was able to reach an even wider audience with the advent of lithography. Numerous firms transferred his original paintings into mass-marketable prints; however, it was his work with Currier & Ives that brought him the most fame. More than thirty of his paintings were used by these distinguished lithographers to produce memorable prints of Hopeful, Maud S., Smuggler and Edward & Swiveller, among others.
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By the late 1890s, Leighton was one of the best known and well-respected equine artists of his time. His most lucrative commission came from A.B. Richmond who offered $8,000, an equivalent of over $200,000 in today's currency, for the famous painting entitled Sealskin Brigade. The painting was so admired that William H. Vanderbilt reportedly offered Leighton an additional $2,000 for it at completion.
Leighton passed away in Waverly, MA on January 18, 1898 at the age of 50.
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