Three Greyhounds in a Landscape

Three Greyhounds in a Landscape

In the manner of to Jacques-Laurent Agasse (1767 – 1849)

Oil on canvas.

64x75cm

Provenance: Private collection, Arnhem, the Netherlands.

There are several aspects of this painting that suggest the picture is by the hand of the animal and landscape painter Jacques-Laurent Agasse.

Firstly, the picture’s physical dimensions are identical to a painting by Agasse in the Yale Center for British Art – Nine Greyhounds in a Landscape, dated c. 1807.

Also of note is the topography of the landscape setting and the buildings in the distance, which bear a striking resemblance to another painting by Agasse, also at Yale, Lord Rivers’ Stud Farm at Stratfield Saye of 1806/7.

Whilst the latter painting’s title specifically reference’s Agasse’s key patron Lord Rivers and his stud farm at Stratefield Saye, the picture depicting three greyhounds also makes a ‘thumbnail’ reference to farm buildings reminiscent of River’s stud farm and its landscape setting.

Rivers, whose family name was Pitt, relative of the well known political figures Pitt and younger and elder, bred greyhounds on a colossal scale, and dominated the Swaffham and Newmarket meets in the early 1800s. In 1810, the Morning Post declared that Rivers had “the most numerous stud of greyhounds of any man in England”. Rivers secured the letter “R” for himself, and named all his dogs with the first letter of his title, a custom adopted by a number of other owners. Among his Swaffham Cup winners were the bitches Rosebud, Rhoda and Rosemary, and it is intriguing to speculate whether they are the dogs depicted in this painting, which is clearly a group portrait of three specific dogs.

Price: £26,500