Frederick Woodhouse Senior, painter, lithographer and engraver, arrived in Melbourne in 1858 in the Parsee to establish himself as a horse portraitist. The catalogue for the exhibition Equinity at the State Library of New South Wales in 2007-2008 explains that 'during the early nineteenth century, Arab horses and thoroughbreds were brought to the colony in significant numbers for breeding and sports such as racing, steeplechasing and hunting. There was a sharp increase in thoroughbred arrivals from the 1830s when these pursuits were well established. This increase in blood or pedigree horse ownership generated a significant market for professionally painted equine portraits by specialists such as Edward Winstanley, Joseph Fowles and Frederick Woodhouse Senior - all arrived in the colony between 1833 and 1858.' Woodhouse's sons were also equine and sporting artists. Their careers are described in Colin Laverty's Australian Colonial sporting painters: Frederick Woodhouse and sons (1980).
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