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Francis Sartorius
"Hunter with Dogs and Horses" c. 1815 by John Francis Sartorius English Sporting

Circa 1815

About the Item

About this work: A wonderful image of late Georgian sporting life, this painting brings together nearly every element for which the Sartorius family became celebrated: beautifully observed horses and dogs, portraits of their owners, and an expansive English landscape. Two gentlemen have paused in an open field, one mounted and the other carrying his gun, accompanied by two grey horses and a pair of sporting dogs. At lower left, two game birds crouch nearly invisibly in the vegetation while the leading dog sniffs them out. Beyond, the countryside falls away to a village dominated by its church, all beneath an enormous, cloud-filled sky. Rather than a simple portrait, Sartorius constructs a miniature narrative of the day’s sport, capturing the moment immediately before the action begins. John Francis Sartorius belonged to one of the great dynasties of British sporting painters. He was the son of John Nost Sartorius and grandson of Francis Sartorius, both important specialists in horses and the sporting world. The family’s association with the subject stretched across generations, and John Francis inherited both its pictorial vocabulary and an unusually intimate knowledge of field sports. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802 and continued to send works there intermittently through 1827. His sporting paintings were also reproduced in The Sporting Magazine, circulating beyond the country houses for which such pictures were principally intended. By about 1815, the approximate date of the present work, sporting painting had become a distinctive form of British portraiture, recording not only individual likenesses but horses, dogs, estates, and the pursuits around which much of country-house life revolved. This painting is especially engaging for the amount of incident Sartorius has compressed into the scene. The mounted gentleman, conspicuous in his red waistcoat and black top hat, sits quietly on a compact grey, while the second man has dismounted and walks ahead with his gun held horizontally. His taller grey remains immediately behind him, still saddled, suggesting that the party has only just stopped after riding across the countryside. The dogs supply the painting’s real sense of movement. One lies alert on the ground while its companion moves toward the concealed birds at the extreme lower left. The distant church and village, meanwhile, give the composition an unusually strong sense of place. Whether they represent a specific estate or locality remains to be established, but their careful inclusion suggests that the landscape mattered to the original patron rather than serving as just generalized scenery. Above it all, Sartorius devotes almost half the canvas to luminous groups of clouds, creating a sense of grandeur in an otherwise intimate episode. The result is both sporting portrait and record of a vanished social world, painted by an artist whose family helped define how Georgian Britain pictured itself at sport. This work is oil on canvas and is unsigned. It is housed in an appropriate gilt frame with a nameplate attributing the work to the elder Sartorius. Size: 28 inches tall by 36 inches wide (painting) 33.25 inches tall by 41.5 inches wide by 2.5 inches deep (frame) Provenance: (circa 1950) M. Bernard, London, UK; Private collection, PA; Acquired from the above Literature: The Burlington Magazine, vol. XCII, 1950, advertisement for M. Bernard, illustrated. Condition: Good overall antique condition commensurate with age. Relined. Stable surface craquelure commensurate with age. Scattered touch up throughout. Later gilt frame with scattered losses and some peeling gold leaf. It is ready to be displayed and enjoyed!
  • Creator:
    Francis Sartorius (1734 - 1804)
  • Creation Year:
    Circa 1815
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 33.25 in (84.46 cm)Width: 41.5 in (105.41 cm)Depth: 2.5 in (6.35 cm)
  • Medium:
    Canvas,Oil
  • Movement & Style:
    English School
  • Period:
    Early 19th Century
  • Condition:
    Good overall antique condition commensurate with age. Relined. Stable surface craquelure commensurate with age. Scattered touch up throughout. Later gilt frame with scattered losses and some peeling gold leaf. It is ready to be displayed and enjoyed!
  • Gallery Location:
    Yardley, PA
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2911218611152