Every print is checked at your sizeTrade programme Ask the Curator

Extraordinary Steeple-Chase

Name: Extraordinary Steeple-Chase
Brand: The Paddock
SKU: PA-00095

Henry Thomas Alken, hand-coloured aquatint, c.1830s

The PaddockPA-00095Tear sheet

Display only

No print size passed the check for this piece: at 10 x 8 in, Wrong shape: a 18% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.

See pieces like it you can buy

Riders and horses fling themselves at hazard after hazard across an exaggerated stretch of country, one obstacle piled on the next. Alken worked as often in comedy as in accuracy, and this print belongs to his satirical side — the real dangers of early steeplechasing stretched toward farce for a public that found the sport half-thrilling, half-absurd. at least one rider already parting company with his horse mid-air. Comedy still needs a real fence to work.

Maker: Henry Thomas Alken, hand-coloured aquatint
Date: c.1830s
Medium of the original: Aquatint
Original held by: Aberdeen Art Gallery
Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery
Rights: Cleared for print
Catalogue number: PA-00095

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
10 x 8 in	Wrong shape: a 18% crop
12 x 8 in	65 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
14 x 11 in	Wrong shape: a 17% crop
16 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
18 x 12 in	43 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 16 in	Wrong shape: a 18% crop
24 x 16 in	32 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
30 x 20 in	26 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 18% crop
36 x 24 in	21 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
48 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
60 x 40 in	13 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged