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Portrait of Exterminator, the prize racehorse, depicted in front of a racetrack. According to the caption, the print is "[a]fter the painting of Exterminator as a seven year old in the Colln. Of Willis Sharpe Kilmer, Esquire." A lengthy description in the lower margin details the horse's history, providing the names of its owners and amount of winnings. A small square to the right of the description shows the silk colors of Exterminator.
Franklin Brooke Voss combined his family background in equestrian sports and art, becoming a prolific painter of horses and sporting subjects. Born in New York City, he grew up riding and foxhunting, and participated in both flat and steeplechase races as a young man. He also studied art at the Art Student's League in New York. There he received a thorough grounding in anatomy, an interest that is evident in the naturalistic portrayal of both horses and humans. He insisted on working from life and disdained painting from photographs. Socially well-connected, he completed more than 500 commissions of race horses, hunting horses and equestrian scenes in the period between 1920 and 1950, including portraits of famed racehorses Man O' War and Citation and numerous paintings for members of the Whitney and Vanderbilt families. His work is in the collection of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York and he was the subject of an exhibition and catalog at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting in Leesburg, Virginia, in 1999.
Reference:
Rives, Barclay, et al. "Franklin B. Voss." Morven Park. 7 April 2000. http://www.morvenpark.org/voss.htm (31 October 2003 ).