Vaughn Flannery photograph album of paintings

Vaughn Flannery (1898-1955) was a Maryland-based artist who specialized in painting racehorses and life behind the scenes at racetracks and breeding farms. As a prominent portraitist of equines, he received commissions from prestigious owners and breeders such as Alfred G. Vanderbilt and the Whitney family of New York. Flannery created vivid oil paintings of notable racehorses, including Man o’ War, Discovery, Questionnaire, and Shut Out.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Flannery’s love of both art and horses was established early in life by his mother, an amateur artist. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Flannery pursued a career in advertising and became Head Art Director at N.W. Ayers and Son Inc. in Philadelphia as well as at Young & Rubicam in New York City. In 1941, he retired to Darlington, Harford County, Maryland in order to devote his time to painting and breeding racehorses as the owner of Cockade Farms. During his time in Darlington, Flannery also published the Harford Gazette and became an officer in the Maryland Jockey Club. He remained in Maryland until his death in 1955.

Unique for the time, Flannery preferred to paint his subjects in their natural surroundings as opposed to having them formally posed. His portraits captured horses in the midst of their daily activities, such as being turned out in a field, loaded onto a van, or cooling down after a workout. Flannery was also a staple on the back stretches of Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course, and Pimlico Race Course, mingling with the owners, trainers, jockeys, and grooms. Much of his artwork also depicts this insider’s view of life behind the spotlight of the racetrack. Although the majority of Flannery’s paintings are in private collections, some of his artwork has made it into the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, and the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 1959, The Baltimore Museum of Art held a memorial exhibit of Flannery’s work featuring twirty-one of his paintings created from 1930 to 1955 and two of his paintings—The Maryland Hunt Cup and Kelly’s Barn—are in its permanent collections.