Life and death of the race horse

This print is divided into six stages. The first represents the foal by the side of his dam ; in the second he is pictured as a racer on the course in all the pride of strength and beauty, blood and limb. In the third stage he has come down to a hunter ; from thence, with old age fast approaching, he is used to run in a postchaise. In the fifth plate we find the racehorse grown aged and broken down, and condemned to end his wretched days belaboured as a pack-horse. In the last stage the racehorse's career is brought down to his death, and a huntsman has purchased his carcass to feed his pack.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library

Thomas Rowlandson - English caricaturist of the 18th and early 19th centuries Britain, known for his humor, caricatures, satirical drawings, and watercolors, a popular artist in the Regency period in England.