John Clark after Henry Alken

Hunting Dogs

1 Stag Hounds
2 Terriers
3 Pointers
4 Water Spaniels
5 Setters
6 Spaniels

15 x 11 inches

A ground of six portraits of the various breeds of dog that were commonly used in hunting and shooting in C19th England, from the first edition of Alken's most famous and ambitious publication, National Sports of Great Britain.

Henry Alken was the most prolific of sporting artists. He produced paintings, drawings, etchings, aquatints and book illustrations in a seemingly endless stream. His was the age of realism when many artists abandoned the mythological conventions of a previous age and the desire to produce works in the "grand manner" and concentrated on a new form of "pictorial journalism".

Alken was a member of an important family of sporting artists and printmakers: his father Samuel (1756-1815) was a well-known sporting aquatinter, while his son (Samuel) Henry (1810-1896) was mostly known as a painter, many of whose works were engraved by other artists.