New Exhibit: The Richard Stone Reeves Retrospective

A portion of the new exhibit currently featured in the Carriage Room

Richard Stone Reeves (1919-2005) will be inducted as a Harness Racing Hall of Fame Immortal on Sunday, July 4, 2010. To recognize his important work chronicling significant Standardbreds of the last century, for the next twelve months, the museum has installed, in The Carriage Room, a presentation of his oil paintings and prints.

Richard Stone Reeves, described as “one of the premier equine artists in the world” by The New York Times, introduced a unique perspective to the tradition of equine portraiture in the mid-1940s. This well-known equine painter added a lifelike dimension to otherwise two-dimensional canvases by placing equal emphasis on his subjects’ physical attributes and psychological characteristics. Not afraid to leave his studio, Reeves regularly traveled to tracks and training facilities to study his four-legged subjects and talk to their owners, trainers and drivers, to better understand the horses’ personalities. The result was a lifetime of stunning portraits that magnificently captured the character and individuality of each equine subject.

Although Reeves has become known primarily for his Thoroughbred portraiture, his roots were firmly embedded in the Standardbred community. Born in Manhattan on November 6, 1919, young Reeves indulged his passion for horses and art by spending his free time sketching Standardbreds at the nearby Mineola Fairgrounds, later the grounds of Roosevelt Raceway. It was there that he met Immortal Harry Pownall, who later became Arden Homestead Stables’ driver/trainer. Pownall was Reeves’ first patron in 1934 when he paid him $10 for a watercolor painting of Hanover Maid.

Reeves received his BA in Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1941; however, he put his art career on hold to serve his country in World War II. It was during the four years he served in the US Navy, that Reeves fortuitously met fellow naval officer Robert G. Johnson, president of Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island, NY. Due to this fateful acquaintance Reeves obtained his first official commission: to paint portraits of the top trotters and pacers of 1946 for the flagship race track’s clubhouse.

Following Reeves’ Roosevelt experience, his fame spread rapidly within the Standardbred and Thoroughbred communities. He received commissions from prominent horsemen and art collectors that included the Aga Khan, Stanley Dancer, Elbridge T. Gerry, Sr., Harry Guggenheim, Roland Harriman, Paul Mellon, Delvin Miller and Ronald Reagan. His star subjects include Standardbreds Meadow Skipper, Nevele Pride, Adios, Speedy Somolli, and Cardigan Bay and Thoroughbreds Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed and Nijinsky. In summing up his years at the easel Reeves reflected, “My painting career started with the trotters. They’ve been good to me.” Richard Stone Reeves passed away October 7, 2005 in Greenport, NY, at the age of eighty-five.