English late 19th century painting of a fox with a rabbit

circa 1890

A painting of a chestnut hunter in a landscape with a horse and rider accompanied by two hounds by a woodland river in the distance. Signed and inscribed 'Melton Mowbray', lower left. Oil on canvas in a giltwood frame. John Ferneley Sr (1782-1860) was born the son of a Leicestershire wheelwright, the youngest of six children. He is known as one of the great British equine artists, perhaps only second to Stubbs in terms of raw ability. Ferneley originally worked with his father, until by chance the Duke of Rutland saw some of his work on the side of a cart on which Ferneley and his father had been working. The Duke was so impressed with Ferneley that he persuaded John's father to allow him to become the pupil of Benjamin Marshall. Ferneley was so talented that apparently he produced almost perfect copies of his tutor's paintings and they were said to have been indistinguishable from the master’s. Marshall also enrolled him as a student of the Royal Academy Schools. In 1804 Ferneley paid a man named Thomas Harrison...

A terrier named Joe standing in an English country house walled garden, painted by the eminent animal painter John Emms (1844-1912) in the late 19th cent...