A to Z of artists Marshall, Ben 1768 - 1835

Ben Marshall was born at Seagrave, Leicestershire on 8 November 1768, the fifth and only surviving son (beyond infancy) of Charles and Elizabeth Marshall. With a letter of recommendation from his local Member of Parliament, the twenty-three-year old Marshall went to London in 1791 to study under the portrait painter, Lemuel Francis Abbott (q.v.). Painting both people and horses, Marshall quickly attracted a number of influential patrons including the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. While wary of the hanging committee at the Royal Academy, he exhibited thirteen pictures between 1800 and 1829 among which probably the best known was of the immensely fat Mr Daniel Lambert, shown in 1807. His Game Cock and The Trimmed Cock shown at the Academy in 1812 illustrate another of his interests as well as the familiar equestrian portraits. A happy association with The Sporting Magazine led to more than sixty of his paintings being engraved in its pages. Also, after his accident, he wrote an occasional commentary under the pseudonym of Observator. John Ferneley (q.v.) and Abraham Cooper (q.v.) were Marshall’s pupils for a time before he left London for Norfolk in 1812 wanting to be closer to Newmarket, the centre of racing. He was now at the height of his career as a horse-painter. Most probably influenced by George Stubbs (q.v.) whose Anatomy of the Horse he is known to have studied, and possibly by Sawrey Gilpin (q.v.), his draughtsmanship, brilliant colouring and bravura handling of paint brought an effervescent atmosphere to his racehorse portraits and the animals’ ‘connections’. When travelling on the Leeds Mail from Newmarket to Rockingham Castle in the early autumn of 1819, the coach overturned and Ben Marshall was severely injured, breaking both legs and damaging his back and head. Recovering slowly, he built a new studio at Newmarket and went back to work. Marshall returned to London in 1825 settling in the Hackney Road while still maintaining his house in Norfolk; two years later his wife Mary died. In October 1834 the artist witnessed the tragic death of his daughter whose dress caught fire which affected Marshall deeply. He died on 24 July 1835 in his sixty-seventh year.