From Neil McGregor, Collections and Exhibitions Officer, Heritage Doncaster.

I am delighted to be able to let you know that with generous assistance from the Friends of Doncaster Museums we have been able to purchase a painting by Charles Simpson, which came up for sale at Chiswick Auctions in London last week.

The painting is a large-scale study for a painting of the finish of the 1931 St leger, by the same artist, which is already in the collection at Doncaster.

In our archives we have a letter from the artist in which he refers to the recently acquired study, stating that: ‘I got permission to paint a large study for the St Leger picture…I have this study here, an oil painting measuring about 40” x 30”……and from this I painted the larger picture”.

The painting stayed with the artist until 1954, at which time it passed to the Tyron Gallery in London. In the late 1990s it was sold through Christies to the current owners, who recently sent it for sale at Chiswick.

To acquire the painting we made a successful application to the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and this money was added to some core funding, which came from the National Heritage Lottery Fund. The additional money from the Friends was vital in our application to the V&A, as they like to see that there is local support for any acquisition.

We hope that the painting will be with us in time to go on display in our forthcoming exhibition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the first running of the St Leger.

Charles Simpson was a renowned animal and landscape painter, and as a close friend of the great equine artist Sir Alfred Munnings, really knew how to paint scenes from the racing world.