Richard Ansdell, R.A.

The Tryon Gallery, London;
Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 5 September 2001, lot 1103, where purchased by the present owner 

The canvas is lined. The paint surface is thin in places with areas of flecks of paint loss, mainly in the figure, dogs and foreground. The varnish has also discoloured. Ultraviolet light reveals extensive retouchings throughout the composition, although less to the gamekeeper. Held in a gilt plaster frame.
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Ansdell painted a series of depictions of gamekeepers surrounded by their dogs and game. A pair of pictures depicting The Scotch Gamekeeper and The English Gamekeeper of 1855 (Sotheby’s, Gleneagles, 31 August 2005, lots 1036 and 1036) share a similar composition to the present picture, although here the figure is a younger gillie accompanied by a pair of setters and with a brace of red-grouse and a hare. Ansdell turned to Scottish subjects in response to the great fashion for paintings of the Highlands that occurred in the middle years of the nineteenth century, partly inspired by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. The cult of the Highlands had been given mass-appeal by the visits made by members of the Royal Family from the early 19th Century onwards. In 1875 when the present work was painted, artistic interest in the Highlands remained strong and it was a popular destination for tourists and sportsmen. In the same year Ansdell painted Quarrying in the Highlands, Loch Laggan and two years later he exhibited one of his greatest Scottish paintings The Auld farmer's New Year's Gift to his Auld Mare Maggie (Sotheby’s, Gleneagles, 30 August 2000, lot 1235).