A May Morning in the Park ( The Fairman Robers Four in Hand)

Four animals, one driver

A four-in-hand is a specific driving arrangement: four horses, harnessed in two pairs, controlled by one person holding all the reins. The title records it, and the parenthetical names the equipage rather than the park. Driving four is a skill category of its own, and a picture that announces it in the title is announcing the skill.

What the record holds

The date of creation is 1880 and the location is the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia. The dimensions are not recorded. The record gives Realism as the style term, American as the nationality, and brown as the measured colour family of the image. The record files the work under portraiture, group portraiture, a rural landscape heading and Animal Art > Horse.

The title as printed

The catalogue prints the parenthetical with a name that looks mistyped, and it is reproduced here as it stands rather than repaired. Titles are the handle by which a record is found again, and correcting one quietly makes it harder to trace rather than easier. This site leaves them alone, and says when they look wrong.