A Lion Hunt
James Northcote, RA (Plymouth 1746 – London 1831)
National Trust Inventory Number 486164
| Category |
Paintings |
| Date |
1819 |
| Materials |
Oil on canvas |
| Measurements |
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| Place of origin |
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The central group of the composition is adapted in reverse from Rubens painting of the same subject at Dresden, so it must have been copied after an engraving. An earlier version of the subject is listed by S. Gwynn in ‘Memorials of an 18th Century Painter’, (1898) as having being painted in 1811. It may be this picture which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1813.
Northcote was a painter of portraits, histories, fancy pictures and animal pictures. His history pictures, many of which were for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, were his pride.
Summary description
Oil painting on canvas, A Lion Hunt by James Northcote, RA (Plymouth 1746 – London 1831). 1819. A lion hunt with a man on a rearing grey horse with a lion on his back and at left, a footman spearing the lion. At right there is another horseman, a black attendant and a lioness and cubs.
Provenance
In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) by 1835. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Marks and inscriptions
James Northcote. Pinxit 1819
Makers and roles
James Northcote, RA (Plymouth 1746 – London 1831), artist
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