John Wootton

1682-1764
Wiscount Weymouth's Hunt: Thomas, 2nd Viscount Weymouth, with a black Page and other Huntsmen at the Kill
1733-6

Oil on canvas
3590 x 3450 mm
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to Tate 2004 T11835

John Wootton was one of the leading sporting and landscape painters in Britain in the first half of the eighteenth century. He created important decorative schemes for some of the great English country houses. This is one of seven paintings by Wootton commissioned in the 1730s for Longleat by Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth. They form a narrative decorative scheme reflecting Weymouth's passion for hunting and horse racing. He appears in this scene as the figure on the left in a blue velvet coat. The Woottons at Longleat constitute one of the greatest achievements of British sporting art. Although all now in the Tate Collection, they remain in place at the house.