Whistlejacket--what color is he?

[vineyridge]

Whistlejacket--Stubbs painting here.
Whistlejacket

Is he a dark palomino, a chestnut with flaxen mane and tail or just a rabicano?

The British National Gallery which owns the painting now says he is a palomino. But the portrait used on TBHeritage which is also by Stubbs looks more like a chestnut with flaxen mane and tail.
Other Whistlejacket

If he is a palomino, where did he get the cream gene?

[xfactor fan]

I've always thought he was a flaxen chestnut. There is a very good reproduction of the painting in my favorite coffee shop.

[color]

Palominos can be very dark so he CAN BE a Palomino. The cream gene has hidden in black and bay for centuries and the Palominos have been called Chestnut so one of his parents can just have had the false name description like with all the others that have the cream gene.

Read a bit on this thread from that page and you will see plenty of super dark Palominos: http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/sh ... 552&page=8

[Jorge]

See his picture at: http://www.search.com/reference/George_Stubbs

For me Whistlejacket was a chestnut, perhaps a dark one, with a flaxen tail and mane.

[Nessa]

Here is a lesser known painting of Whistlejacket, and a biographic paragraph that states that he was indeed a chestnut. It's the sixth one from the top.

http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricSires ... iresW.html

[xfactor fan]

The standing photo looks chestnut. And given that this is Stubbs, I'm sure it is accurate. He's got a painting of a "Horse being attacked by a lion" where the horse if definitely palomino. This indicates that Stubbs knew how to paint palominos, and knew the difference between palomino and flaxen chestnut.
I've seen a couple of reproduction of the rearing painting, and in some the horse looks chestnut, and in some it looks dark palomino--there is a brassy/buff under tone rather than a red under tone that chestnuts have. This might just be color shift when the painting was photographed.

Anyone out there ever seen the original?

[color]

But some Palominos do look chestnut, some even almost black or bayish. Just go over to the Chronicle thread and see the pictures posted of Palominos in another thread. Many Palominos could pass as Chestnuts too and at the time with no DNA and no knowledge who knows..... http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/sh ... 52&page=12

[Sunday Silence]

Maybe a liver chestnut with a flaxen mane, much like Black Seventeen, who is currently running.

[aethervox]

The cream gene has hidden in black and bay for centuries

I agree - look at the description of this mare from the American Turf Guide: Mulatto-Mary: This celebrated race mare was sold by William M. West, Esq of New Hope Race Course, Halifax County, North Carolina, to Mr. Thomas J. Goodman, of Baltimore Maryland, in May 1827 - then 4 years of age. Mr. West gave her the above name from her being a dun or yellow bay colour Got by Old Sir Archie (Son of the imported horse Old Diomed) - Orion (son of imp. horse Hoomes's Stirling) - Driver.