Terms of Service

Acceptance

These terms govern the use of horsespaintings.com, published by The Sporting Art Register. Using the site means accepting them. If you do not accept them, do not use the site.

This subject cannot claim blanket public domain

Most catalogues of old master painting can say that everything they show is out of copyright. This one cannot, and the difference is not a technicality. Sporting art did not stop in 1800. Alfred Munnings died in 1959, Lionel Edwards in 1966, and their work is protected in the United Kingdom and across the European Union until seventy years after the painter's death. A Stubbs of 1765 is free everywhere; a Munnings of 1935 is not free anywhere yet.

That governs what this register may show. The rule is that a painting is reproduced here only where the painter's death date places it in the public domain in its country of origin; a work still in copyright belongs in a catalogue entry without an image. If one has slipped through with an image attached, that is a mistake to be corrected, not a position to be defended.

A second problem is specific to a genre held largely in private hands. Where the only photograph of a picture is one an auction house or an owner commissioned, that photograph is a separate copyright work belonging to whoever made it, and the age of the painting underneath is irrelevant to it. An old painting does not make every photograph of it free.

Finally, some institutions assert a copyright in faithful photographs of works they hold; courts in the United States have declined to recognise such a right, and the position differs by country. Check the terms published by the institution named in an entry before commercial reuse, and send rights enquiries or takedown requests to post@horsespaintings.com.

Using the catalogue text

Catalogue facts — a date, a support, a set of dimensions, the name of a collection — are facts, and facts are not owned by anybody. Take them and use them.

The written text of this site is a different matter: it is the work of The Sporting Art Register and is not offered for republication. Quote it, cite it and link to it freely. Do not copy pages wholesale, and do not feed the site to a scraper that reproduces it elsewhere as though it were its own.

What an entry here is worth, and what it is not

Attribution in sporting art is unusually unstable. Family workshops, a long tradition of copying successful compositions and a market that rewarded a good name have all left the field with attributions that shift. Where an attribution is contested, the entry records the dispute instead of choosing a side, and inferences drawn from harness or conformation are marked as inferences.

Nothing published here may be relied on to authenticate a painting, to establish provenance, or to support a valuation, an insurance claim or a sale. Ownership and location records in particular are historical statements about the last published source, not assertions about where a picture is today.

No warranty, and limits on liability

The site is provided as it is. No warranty is given that it will be available, that it will be free of error, or that it is fit for any particular purpose. Links to other sites are provided for reference and imply no responsibility for what is on them.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, no liability is accepted for indirect or consequential loss arising from use of the site, including loss arising from reliance on anything published here. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, where such a limit would not be permitted.

Changes, and where to write

These terms may change; the date at the top changes with them. Questions about them go to The Sporting Art Register at post@horsespaintings.com.