This painting depicts a rider c.1740 in a typical pose adopted for dressage, a French word meaning “training”, considered to be the art of equestrian sport and used as the groundwork for all the other disciplines. Its roots can be traced as far back as ancient Greece; Xenophon (430 – 354 BC) is considered the founder of what is considered dressage today and is the author of the first book on horsemanship, “Peri Hippikes”. With the disintegration of ancient Greece, the art of riding was ignored, aside from its military use, until the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century. Eventually the teachings of the riding academy in Naples spread to Baroque France with Classical Dressage reaching its peak in the 18th century with the creation of the world famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna in 1729.
Such was the popularity that many engravings circulated depicting the techniques and handling of the horse, and it is possible that this picture is a 19th century copy of one such print dealing with the history of the discipline. Either way it has a charm and character that make it an engaging image of both rider and horse.