Thomas Woodward

Thomas Woodward (1801-1852) - Oil painting - "Foxhound at an Earth" - Portrait of a black and tan hound seated on a rocky outcrop, canvas 28.5ins x 38ins, initialled twice and dated 1843 and 1844, in modern gilt moulded frame CLEAR RESERVE - NO DISCRETION Provenance : Richard Green, 44 Dover Street, London W1X 4AQ, No SP733 (No. 14 in 1992 Sporting Exhibition)

Thomas Woodward (1801-1852) - "Foxhound at an Earth" - Portrait of a black and tan hound seated on a rocky outcrop, canvas 28.5ins x 38ins, initialled twice and dated 1843 and 1844, in modern gilt moulded frame Provenance : Richard Green, 44 Dover Street, London W1X 4AQ, No SP733 (No. 14 in 1992 Sporting Exhibition)

THOMAS WOODWARD 1801 - 1852 measurements note 71 by 92 cm., 28 by 36 1/4 in. oil on canvas, unframed PROVENANCE Mr Bentley, Worcester, until 1853; Anonymous sale, Sotheby's London, 29th February 1984, lot 93 LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Sir W. Gilbey, Animal Painters of England, 1911, vol. III, pp.296 & 298 CATALOGUE NOTE The present picture is a preparatory version for the painting Woodward exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828, no. 339, now lost. The painting aroused considerable interest at its exhibition, and the critic of the Examiner remarked that 'Mr Woodward, who has hitherto been seen in little more than single animal works, surprises us with his Mazeppa, where the horses under the most exited feelings look as if they came of the renowned race of Homer Steeds'. The scene illustrates an episode from the seventeenth stanza of Byron's epic poem, Mazeppa . First published in 1819 the poem is based upon a popular legend of the early life of Ivan Mazepa (1639-1709), a Ukrainian gentleman and later Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Whilst serving as a page in the court of King John Casimir II, the hero of the poem becomes entangled in a love affair with the wife of an eminent court official, Countess Theresa. Upon discovery of the adulterous affair Mazeppa's punishment is to be tied naked to a wild horse which is then taunted and let loose, and the bulk of the poem deals with his traumatic ordeal thereafter. '...He answer'd, and then fell; With gasps and glazing eyes he lay, And reeking limbs immovable, His first and last career is done ! On came the troop -- they saw him stoop, They saw me strangely bound along His back with many a bloody thong: They stop, they start, they snuff the air, Gallop a moment here and there, Approach, retire, wheel round and round, Then plunging back with sudden bound, Headed by one black mighty steed, Who seem'd the patriarch of his breed, Without a single speck or hair Of white upon his shaggy hide; They snort, they foam, neigh, swerve aside, And backward to the forest fly, By instinct, from a human eye. They left me there to my despair, Link'd to the dead and stiffening wretch, Whose lifeless limbs beneath me stretch, Relieved from that unwonted weight, From whence I could not extricate Nor him nor me -- and there we lay, The dying on the dead !...'

Thomas Woodward (1801-1852) Old Brush and a chestnut mare, in a field signed with monogram and dated '1829' (lower left) oil on canvas 25 x 30 in. (63.5 x 76.2 cm.) Provenance Commissioned by E.A. Holden, and by descent to John Holden, June1877 (according to an old handwritten label attached to thestretcher). Anonymous sale; Phillips, London, 7 June 1988, lot 64 (sold£30,000). Literature C.W. Graham-Stewart, Thomas Woodward , publishedprivately, 1989, p.131, no.11. Exhibited London, Royal Academy, 1829, No. 413.

etching, with hand colouring, published april 15th, by thomas tegg; trimmed to the image, otherwise in good condition, 240 x 325mm (9 1/2 x 12 3/4in)(i). together with collection of other caricatures by and after the same hand; "the monstrous craw" and "pigmy revels", and by cruikshank, theodor lane, heath and rowlandson; "cash". (collection ) (unframed)