'The Belvoir Hunt: Jumping into and out of a Lane', Henry Thomas Alken

Artwork details

Artist

Henry Thomas Alken (1785‑1851)

Title

The Belvoir Hunt: Jumping into and out of a Lane

Date c.1830-40

MediumOil paint on canvas

Dimensionssupport: 451 x 648 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Presented by Paul Mellon through the British Sporting Art Trust 1979

Reference

T02353

Not on display

Display caption

This is the second of four scenes by Alken of the Belvoir [pronounced Beaver] hunt, one of the oldest and most celebrated of the great foxhound packs located in the flat, open countryside in and around Leicestershire. The Belvoir, like the Quorn, Pytchley or Cottesmore hunts, was open to members through subscription. To hunt with such a pack was an enormously popular activity with fashionable society during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Henry Alken is the best known of a large family of sporting artists. His lively and humorous hunting scenes were frequently reproduced as popular prints, published for some years under the pseudonym 'Ben Tally-Ho'.

August 2004