Richard Ansdell, R.A.

Agnew's, London;
Lady Swinton from whom purchased in1964 by the present owner

The canvas has been lined. There are some isolated, faint areas of craquelure and a repaired L-shaped tear to the right of the stag's right antler, approx. 3 by 3cm - not visually distracting. Overall the work appears in very good condition, clean and ready to hang. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be retouchings along each edge and some areas in the sky, the most significant of which corresponds to the above mentioned repaired tear, and also a smaller area in the cloud left of this. Some further flecks of retouching through the foreground including a small area to the left of the white horse's front right leg. Held in a gilt plaster frame.
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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."

This impressive painting by Richard Ansdell shows two ghillies stopping for refreshment at a burn on their way down the mountain after a successful day’s stalking. Their ponies are both heavily laden with the carcasses of two red deer stags. The middle years of the nineteenth century saw a great fashion for Scottish subjects, and in particular romanticised visions of the Highlands, as popularised in the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Queen Victoria first visited Perthshire in 1842, on an itinerary devised so ‘that the greatest possible amount of rich scenery might come within range of the Royal vision – that landscapes of the most various character, and severally amongst the best of their order, might pass rapidly before the view, and melt into one another like the hues of the rainbow – and that no intrusion of equipage and ceremoniousness should occur to disturb the royal mind’s banqueting on the beauty.’ (Perthshire illustrated: A Series of Select Views, 1844, p.lxxxviii). The trip ignited a love affair with the Highlands which would last the rest of the Queen’s life and a vogue in Victorian society for all things Scottish. Sporting pursuits became perceived as something that the fashionable and affluent of the age would want to indulge and participate in. The present work perpetuates the conception of the highlander as portrayed by Scott – that of the robust man, in close communion with the landscape, whose life was perceived as noble and romantic. There is no hint of the industrialised world most Victorians inhabited.

Nineteenth century Highland imagery, an entirely new iconography of animal and sporting subjects, was perhaps most famously associated with Sir Edwin Landseer. He first visited the region in 1824 and his highly publicised works such as Highlanders returning from Deerstalking (Duke of Northumberland collection) were a big influence on other sporting and animal painters like Richard Ansdell and John Frederick Herring, whose painting The Halt (sold Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 28 August 2002, lot 1049 for £523,650) depicts a very similar scene to Ansdell's Return from the Hills. Motifs of ghillies, deerhounds and ponies with dead deer strapped across their backs with antlers forming the apex of the composition became popular. Also influential in establishing the contemporary fascination with deerstalking was William Scrope’s The Art of Deerstalking, published in 1838 and with illustrations drawn by Charles Landseer. This book served as a manual for those who were first taking up the sport, and was reissued on numerous occasions through the nineteenth century.  

Richard Ansdell is one the best known painters of Highland subjects. A Liverpool artist, he trained at the Liverpool Academy and soon found his forte in the depiction of animals. His skill was spotted early and he quickly established wealthy patrons.  He was at the height of his powers when he painted this painting in 1848, three years later he won a Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1851 with Turning the Drove, Aviemore and the Grampians in the distance. His talents were described in 1860 by Mr J. Dafforne, in Art Journal 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 latter 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.).