Walter Winans driving a carriage

Walter Winans (1852-1920), depicted driving a carriage in present picture, was a polymath and heir to a fortune built on constructing the vast Russian railway network. This gave him the opportunity to indulge his passions for shooting, trotting, painting, sculpting and writing. He was one of the finest shots of his generation, winning two Olympic gold medals and he was also active in the sport of trotting, both as a breeder and as a driver in England and Austria. By the 1880s he owned more sporting rights over Scotland than any other individual. His rented estates stretched from sea to sea, covering more than 200,000 acres. As well as painting highland scenery, many of his sculptures celebrate the heroes of the Wild West and the frontier spirit of his paternal homeland, the United States. He died in 1920 during a trotting race at Parsloe Park, London, aptly just as his horse was crossing the finishing line.
 
Winans was an avid patron of Thomas Blinks and commissioned many works including a portrait on the Running Deer Range, Wimbledon Common (Christie’s, London 7th November 1997, lot 144, £74,100). On Blinks’ s death Winans was moved to write to the Daily Mail proclaiming `[Blinks was] one of the best painters of a horse in action that has ever existed. I bought some 40 of his pictures during his lifetime, and I sold one, getting three times what I paid for it, and now that he is dead, of course, their value has greatly increased. It is obvious nobody seems to appreciate good painting till someone else has bought it'.