Beschreibung:

Joseph Farquharson RA (British, 1846-1935)Deer and Rabbits in a Wood
signed 'J Farquharson' (lower right)
oil on canvas
152 x 102cm (59 13/16 x 40 3/16in).FootnotesProvenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, Billingshurst, 24 May 1995, lot 402.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, Gleneagles, 29 August 1995, lot 794.
Private collection, UK (acquired at the above sale).
Aberdeenshire landscapes with roaming deer or meandering flocks of sheep, amid the rosy hues of dawning or gloaming light, are the signature elements of Farquharson's greatest works and in the present lot they are rendered with great sophistication and technical virtuosity. His love and intimate knowledge of the landscape, and his respect for the changing seasons is evident. Here, the rabbits and deer are used as a compositional device, alongside the diagonally sloping tree roots, that helps draw the viewer through the forest track towards the tunnel of light on the crest of the horizon.
Sickert viewed Farquharson's approach to painting favourably:
'Farquharson's extraordinary virtuosity has been developed by experience but it arises certainly because he is thinking of telling his story... The subject is the very raison d'etre of the picture. Bloomsbury will perhaps tell you that it is wrong... Fortunately the writ of Bloomsbury does not run to the North of Scotland'
(W. R. Sickert, A Free House, London 1947, p. 204, first published in an article 'Snow Piece and Palette Knife', The Daily Telegraph, 7 April 1926).