Richard Barrett Davis

This fascinating and unusual painting depicts three 'Liger' cubs, bred between a lion and a tigress at the Royal Menagerie, Sandpit Gate, Windsor Great Park, in October 1824, with their father looking on while the mother plays with her cubs. A Royal Menagerie had been maintained since the reign of King John, and is first recorded at the Tower of London in 1210. The Menagerie at Sandpit Gate, in Windsor Great Park was established in the mid eighteenth century by George III’s brother, the Duke Cumberland, and was maintained until 1830.

Richard Barrett Davis was appointed animal painter to George IV from 1828, and had had close associations with the Royal Household for a number of years before. Born in Hemel Hempstead, Davis’ father, Richard Davis (1750–1825), had been huntsman to George III’s private harriers from 1789, and when the hunt moved to Windsor at the turn of the century the young artist’s talents caught the attention of the King. As early as 1805 he exhibited a painting of His Majesty in his Travelling Chariot Returning to Town from Windsor at the Royal Academy, followed by a picture of Mares and Foals in his Majesty’s Stud at Windsor the following year. As well as painting the King’s horses Davis clearly had access to the Royal Menagerie, and in 1827 painted a portrait of the Nubian Giraffe given to George VI by Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt (The Royal Collection).

This subject was also painted by Jacques-Laurent Agasse in 1825 (Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Centre for British Art). We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot and for suggesting the attribution on the basis of photographs.