Beschreibung:

JOHN FERNELEY SNR (1782-1860) Mr Hugh Dick's Favourite Mare and Pointer outside Humewood House, County Wicklow Oil on canvas, 100 x 125cm Signed J. Ferneley Pinx. and dated 1809 (lower right) Literature: Major Guy Paget DL, The Melton Mowbray of John Ferneley (Leicester, 1931) under the artist's account book no. 17 (unpaginated); Robert Fountain, John Ferneley (1782-1860): Catalogue of Paintings Chronologically by Subject (British Sporting Art Trust, online, updated December 2015) reference number A.09.017.001; James Horan, Humewood (Kinsale, Gandon Editions, 2018) illustrated page 27. Provenance: Commissioned by Hugh Dick Esq. MP, in July 1809 at a cost of 15 guineas; by bequest to his sister Charlotte Anna, who had married Captain William Hoare Hume of Humewood; with Leggat Brothers, London, from whom acquired by Mrs. Edward Shearson, (née Flora Josephine Shea) New York (her posthumous sale, New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, November 6, 1955, lot 48); Jane Engelhard (1917-2004), New York philanthropist and owner of the great racehorse Nijinsky which was trained at Ballydoyle by Vincent O'Brien; by gift of Mrs Engelhard to a US private collector. The absence of a native school of equestrian painting has long surprised art historians, especially given Irelands close association with the turf. However, this lacuna is in part made up for by the fact that one of the finest of all English sporting painters, John Ferneley enjoyed close links with Ireland. This was noted by Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin: It should be remembered that the great English horse painter John Ferneley of Melton Mobray, paid four visits to Ireland, the first in 1808 when he had introductions from the fifth Duke of Rutland, whose father had been Lord Lieutenant. Ferneley returned for long visits in 1810, 1811 and 1812. This, one of the finest works daring from his first visit to Ireland, is also invaluable for its depiction of the old house at Humewood, County Wicklow. It was used to illustrate the Georgian house in James Horans book on the restoration of the gothic mansion which replaced it. John Ferneley was born at Thrussington in Leicestershire, in the midst of the English Hunting Shires. His precocity attracted the attention of the Duke of Rutland, who persuaded his wheelwright father to apprentice him to the equestrian painter Ben Marshall. The latter became a life-long friend as well as teacher. Little of Ben Marshall's broad and vigorous technique is evident in his pupil's later free and refined style, though some of Ferneley's early works, such as those painted on his visits to Ireland between 1808 and 1812, have echoes of his master. Ferneley first arrived in Ireland in late 1808 and stayed about a year, returning to Thrussington in November 1809. He clearly found the country congenial and won significant commissions, painting for such distinguished patrons as the Lords Lismore and Rossmore, the Earl of Belmore and the Trenches and OCallaghans. He contrived to earn and save £180, enough to pay for his marriage to Sally Kettle shortly after his return to England. They stayed in England only a few weeks, returning to Ireland in the spring of 1810, where they were received with generosity and affection by his clients of the previous year. In five months he amassed a small fortune of over £200. Ferneley is without question the finest sporting artist to have worked in Ireland, and yet few indeed of his paintings of this prolific period survive or at least can be identified today. There are still two such in the collection of the Earl of Belmore at Castle Coole, which again show ponies, called Plenipo and Buffer. On his return, Ferneley rapidly established a distinguished English and Scottish clientele, and he and John Herring were the sporting painters par excellence in the period 1810-1850. Ferneley was himself a keen sportsman, and he recounts in his (eccentrically spelled) letters his exploits in the field. Throughout most of his working l