A collection of paintings and sculpture on loan from Joan Irvine Smith to the National Sporting Library.

On view at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Va., "Masterpieces of European and American Sporting Art: 19th and 20th- Century," a collection of exceptional paintings and sculpture on loan from Joan Irvine Smith. It includes an array of works by John F. Herring Sr. and Jr., Henry Alken, John Ferneley, Sir Alfred J. Munnings, and others. The exhibit, which opens Friday, April 21, will be on view until spring 2007.

"This exhibit is absolutely extraordinary. The list of paintings and sculptures reads like a who's who of famous sporting artists from England, France and America," said Nancy Parsons, President and CEO of the National Sporting Library.

Many works command the viewers' attention. John Frederick Herring Sr.'s Start for the Oaks is a panoramic sweep of spectators and competitors. His Hunting Mishap reflects all too well the perils of the chase. Henry Alken Sr.'s The Start of the Derby depicts horses racing in a heat.

Physician with H. Edwards Up by John Ferneley Sr., depicts a blue-silked jockey astride an eye-catching bay. Sir Alfred Munnings' Anarchist Going to the Post shows a handsome chestnut, Number 6, heading out to the job he's been so carefully conditioned to do. Not to overlook are also George Armfield's Spaniels with Pheasant; W. Cruikshan's Still life of rabbits and fowl; David Dalby's Birmingham with Pan Connally Up, and E.A.S. Douglas's Set of Four Coaching scenes.

Other artists represented in the exhibition include Raoul Millais, Charles Towne, Abbot Henderson Thayer, John Lewis Brown, John Wainwright, Arthur Wardle, James Pollard, Samuel Raven, William J. Shayer, J.W. Snow, Sawrey Gilpin, Charles Cooper Henderson, and E.A.S. Douglas.

Nineteenth-century French and American bronzes are also a highlight, including the American Charles Russell's Will Rogers Mounted on a Horse and French sculptor I.J. Bonheur's Racehorse and Jockey.

Exhibition hours are Mon. 1 pm to 4 pm, and Tues.-Fri., 10 am to 4 pm. The Library is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

For information and directions, visit www.nsl.org .

About Joan Irvine Smith:

Philanthropist and art connoisseur Joan Irvine Smith of San Juan Capistrano, Ca., who is a member of the National Sporting Library's Board of Directors, is an active art-preservationist and land-conservationist. With her mother, the late Athalie R. Clarke, she founded the Irvine Museum in 1992 in Orange County, Ca., which highlights California Impressionists. As a board member of the Irvine Company, she was able to preserve a portion of her grandfather's once-extensive 110,000-acre sheep ranch in California's Orange County. She also helped found the Reeve-Irvine Spinal Cord Injury Research Center for Spinal Cord Repair at the University of California.

Smith, who owns a farm in Middleburg, Va., was married to legendary horseman Morton W. "Cappy" Smith from 1963 to 1975, a time when she called Middleburg, Va. home. For 12 years she and Cappy bred, trained and sold horses from The Oaks, the 230-acre property Smith has owned since 1963.

Though Smith and Cappy divorced in 1975, they remained close friends and business associates, breeding, training and showing horses until his death in 2002.