Beschreibung:

HERBERT PUGH (FL. C.1758-1788) Cows, Sheep and Goats in a Landscape Oil on canvas, 39 x 47.5cm Signed and dated 1762 Born in Ireland, Pugh moved to London, settling in Covent Garden. He exhibited at the Society of Artists between 1760 and 1776 where his work was admired by no less than the great connoisseur Horace Walpole He painted low-life, caricatured genre subjects rather in the manner of Hogarth and also landscapes seemingly influenced by the later period of George Barret although the influence of Richard Wilson his neighbour in Covent has also been detected in his work. Pugh's landscapes were praised by Colonel Grant, the great chronicler of the subject, who described him as 'very nearly a great artist'. Within the landscape tradition, Pugh specialized in the genre popularization by Dutch artists such as Aelbert Cuyp who was enormously popular in England and of the forty-five works he exhibited at the Society of Artists about a quarter were landscapes with cattle (Nicola Figgis and Brendan Rooney, 'Irish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland' Vol. 1, 2001, p.395). Clearly within this tradition, the present work, signed and dated 1762, is closely related to an example in the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI 1819) dated three years earlier which shows similarly, anthropomorphized cattle, here joined in a forest glade by sheep, goats and sparing bulls. In the background is a pyramid-shaped funerary monument. Pugh's work is extremely rare and this is a fine example. The canvas is painted with great brio and enthusiasm, and an element of quirky humour - found in his Hogarthian caricatures - should not be denied this gathering of the species. According to Strickland, Pugh's 'intemperate habits hastened his death' which occurred some time after 1788. HERBERT PUGH (FL. C.1758-1788) Cows, Sheep and Goats in a Landscape Oil on canvas, 39 x 47.5cm Signed and dated 1762 Born in Ireland, Pugh moved to London, settling in Covent Garden. He exhibited at the Society of Artists between 1760 and 1776 where his work was admired by no less than the great connoisseur Horace Walpole He painted low-life, caricatured genre subjects rather in the manner of Hogarth and also landscapes seemingly influenced by the later period of George Barret although the influence of Richard Wilson his neighbour in Covent has also been detected in his work. Pugh's landscapes were praised by Colonel Grant, the great chronicler of the subject, who described him as 'very nearly a great artist'. Within the landscape tradition, Pugh specialized in the genre popularization by Dutch artists such as Aelbert Cuyp who was enormously popular in England and of the forty-five works he exhibited at the Society of Artists about a quarter were landscapes with cattle (Nicola Figgis and Brendan Rooney, 'Irish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland' Vol. 1, 2001, p.395). Clearly within this tradition, the present work, signed and dated 1762, is closely related to an example in the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI 1819) dated three years earlier which shows similarly, anthropomorphized cattle, here joined in a forest glade by sheep, goats and sparing bulls. In the background is a pyramid-shaped funerary monument. Pugh's work is extremely rare and this is a fine example. The canvas is painted with great brio and enthusiasm, and an element of quirky humour - found in his Hogarthian caricatures - should not be denied this gathering of the species. According to Strickland, Pugh's 'intemperate habits hastened his death' which occurred some time after 1788.