Richard Ansdell, R.A. 1815-1885

J. A. Waring, Esq. by 1921

STRUCTURE The canvas has been relined. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The catalogue illustration is broadly representative. PAINT SURFACE The paint surface is in good overall condition. There are areas of slightly discoloured varnish in the sky and beneath the bird of prey. Otherwise sound. ULTRAVILET LIGHT UV light reveals retouching to frame abrasions in the top corners and areas of retouching in the sky around the hawk and to the dark clouds above the female rider; some further strengthening to the outline of the heron, lower left and to the ground, lower right. FRAME Held in a plaster gilt frame in fair condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The vogue for animal painting in the nineteenth century reached new heights and artists such as Richard Ansdell found great fame painting the nobility of the wild beast in the wilderness and the tamed animal in service to Man. Ansdell's images of dogs and hunters recall the majesty of Sir Edwin Landseer's canvases, which had so stirred the sentiments of the British, well-known for their love of hunting and of animals and the heart-rending emotion played out before the eyes in every agonised detail. Unlike Landseer, Ansdell's images were largely harmonic and pastoral idylls of the life of stalkers, hawkers or shepherds and after his visits to Spain, the amorous troubadour, predominate. Mr J. Dafforne, in the Art Journal of 1860, wrote of Ansdell's talents thus, 'That Mr Ansdell has closely studied animal life, that he represents it faithfully, vigorously, and picturesquely, and that his productions are among the best of their kind which our school -, and, indeed, any other - has brought forward, is to pay him and them no higher compliment than is merited. If there had been no Landseer, Ansdell would unquestionably occupy a foremost place in the department of Art; but there are some of his pictures that may stand in favourable juxtaposition with those of Sir Edwin: the later is unequalled in delineating the intelligent qualities of the animal tribes, the former may claim the pre-eminence in delineating their fiercer natures' (Art Journal, 1860, p. 235).

The present picture depicts a young noble-man surrounded by his spaniels and holding aloft a beautiful hawk. At his feet is the body of a grey heron that has been caught by the falcon and in the background the young man's female companion holds the reins of their white ponies. The closely studied dead heron is reminiscent of George Frederick Watts celebrated study (Watts Gallery, Compton).  The pose of the hawker and his falcon recalls Edwin Landseer's The Return from Hawking, Portraits of Lord Francis Egerton and his Family which Ansdell is known to have admired; he painted a replica in 1880 (Christie's, New York, 14 January 2004, lot 53). In 1866 Ansdell painted A Hawk Attacking a Pheasant, with Spaniels and a Huntsman Beyond (Christie's, 6 June 1997, lot 117) in which the focus is upon the falcon and his prey rather than the huntsman who is more peripheral. The rust and white spaniel in Hawking appeared in another of Ansdell's paintings of this period The Gamekeeper's Daughter.