The Council of Horses (from John Gray's Fables)
John E. Ferneley (Thrussington 1782 - Melton Mowbray 1860)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1850 (inscribed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2490 x 2110 mm
Place of origin
Melton Mowbray
Order this imageCollection
Calke Abbey, Derbyshire
NT 290269
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Council of Horses (from John Gray's Fables) by John E. Ferneley (Thrussington 1782 – Melton Mowbray 1860), inscribed 'Melton Mowbray' dated 1850. From Gays Fables, a gathering of horses and ponies of different colours and breeds in a forest clearing. Distant horizon to the right with clue cloudy sky. 'Bought by Sir J. Crewe for £200. According to the artist's account book, the highest price for which he sold a painting. Exhibited at the British Institute, 1851.' (Inventory card) John Fernely painted hunting scenes and horse paintings of the highest quality, but 'The Council of Horses', painted for Sir John Harpur Crewe in 1727, describing how a proud unbroken colt 'with mutiny had fir'd the train and spread dissention through the plain' by refusing to be broken in and advising the other horses not to work for Man. This is the beautiful bay horse standing on the left. ALl the horses agree until an old horse steps forward; the large dark brown horse with four white stockings and a white face. Old and wise, he rebukes the youg colt; 'When I had health and strength like you/The toils of servitude I knew./Now grateful man rewards my pains/And gives me all these wide domains. At will I crop the year's increase,/My latter life is rest and peace.' The poem ends; 'The tumult ceased: the colt submitted/And like his ancestors was bitted.'(House guide, last revised 1996)
Provenance
Passed to the National Trust on the death of Henry Harper-Crewe in 1991
Marks and inscriptions
Melton Mowbray 1850
Makers and roles
John E. Ferneley (Thrussington 1782 - Melton Mowbray 1860), artist