Behind the Scenes at Astley's

This painting includes a portrait of John Esdaile Widdicomb (1787-1854), Astley's well-known riding master and conductor of the ring, wearing a red coat and gold epaulettes. According to Blanchard's Life and Reminiscences, 1891, Widdicomb was an actor who: 'played the dandylover in pantomime' to the famous clown Joseph Grimaldi at the Coburg Theatre before he went to Astley's where he became an excellent riding master. He was renowned for his good looks which he preserved well into his later years, and the poet Robert Browning described him in a letter to his wife in August 1846 as having a face: ‘just Tom Moore's, plus two painted cheeks, a sham moustache, and hair curled in wiry long ringlets.’ When there was no evening performance at Astley's he was frequently seen at Vauxhall Gardens. The other sitters in this painting have been identified as the clown Twist, seated, the actor and equestrian John Cartlich standing next to Widdicomb who stands next to the seated figure of the chief equestrian and proprietor of Astley's Andrew Ducrow (1824-1842).