Terence Cuneo 1907-1996

The present picture depicts a meet of the Eastern Counties Otter Hounds in 1970, which was disbanded five years later following a decline in the numbers of otters which put pressure on hunting with hounds. The hounds and hunters turned to hunting coypu and later mink, instead of otters. The setting for this painting is the banks of the river Wensum in Norfolk, over which can be seen the span of the Guist Bridge.

The diverse talents of Terence Cuneo are well known from his paintings of locomotives and heavy machinery, ceremonial events and official portraits. As one of Queen Elizabeth II's favourite artists Terence Cuneo has the distinction of having painted more Royal portraits than any other artist since Van Dyck. He was an official war artist for World War II and produced propaganda paintings for the Ministry of Information and for the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. He attended the Chelsea Art School and later the Slade but was able to avoid the fads and fancies of British modernism in the 1930s. His ability as a portrait painter is evident in the present picture which includes the portraits of twenty-six men, two women and twenty-eight hounds.

Since 1953 he painted his trademark mouse into almost every picture  and titled his autobiography (the foreword of which was written by Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) The Mouse and his Master. The mouse even appears in his great painting of Winston Churchill lying in state, in a large portrait of the Queen at Buckingham Palace and in a painting of the consecration of Coventry Cathedral. The motif had occurred to Cuneo when he was painting the enormous canvas depicting the coronation of Elizabeth II and the artist's Burmese cat presented him with a tiny corpse which the artist took as a compliment to the picture. He wrote of his joy of painting in the following modest words, 'I've had a marvelous life, travelling enormously and having the rare privilege of  doing the job that I love. People talk of creative men having terrible moods of despair. I'm a happy sort of chap on the whole.' (Daily Mail, 5 October, 1987, p. 21)

The following is a key to the names of the figures and hounds in the painting:

Followers:

1. Mr ‘Waller’ Sworder
2. Mr Harold Townsend
3. Mr Eric Bennett
4. Ronald Brown, Gamekeeper
5. Mr Michael Mason
6. Mrs Sally Bates, M.F.H.
7. Mr Tom Jackson
8. Derek Gardiner, 1^st Whipper-In and K.H.
9. Mr Michael Farrow, Joint-Master and Huntsman
10. Mr Ray Landless
11. Mr Peter Hodgkinson, 2^nd Whipper-In
12. Mr Ian Mace
13. Mr Terry Cooke
14. Mr Charles Corner
15. Mr Derek Raynsford
16. Mr George Burrell
17. Mr Jim Miskin
18. Mr Paul Bennett
19. Mrs Derek Raynsford
20. Mr Peter Bowen
21. Mr Stafford Babbage, Joint-Master
22. Mr Ian Haslam
23. Capt ‘Bunny’ Longman, Hon. Secretary
24. Mr Robert Fryer
25. Miss Marianne Hale
26. Mr Ian Alexander, Master of the Courtenay Tracy O.H.
27. Mr Howard Greenwood
28. Lt. Col. Harry Thornhill

Hounds:

1. Saracen
2. Comfort
3. Truelove
4. Craftsman
5. Searcher
6. Lancer
7. Trinket
8. Stumper
9. Trusty
10. Gaylad
11. Gangway
12. Granby
13. Sarah
14. Tennant
15. Lapwing
16. Sarjeant
17. Treasure
18. Saladin
19. Pincher
20. Samson
21. Cozy
22. Grafton
23. Darling
24. Valesman
25. Templar

Terriers:

1. Binnie
2. Potter
3. Peggy