Artwork
Hunting Scene with a Pond
Hunting Scene with a Pond is an oil painting. It dates from 1750 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. The work is an oil on canvas depicting a bustling hunting tableau.
About this work
Technique & Style
4 cm in width, giving the composition a distinctly horizontal, frieze-like format suited to a panoramic landscape narrative.
Hunting Scene with a Pond is executed in oil on canvas, a standard support for mid-eighteenth-century American painting. The canvas measures 65.8 cm in height by 127.4 cm in width, giving the composition a distinctly horizontal, frieze-like format suited to a panoramic landscape narrative.
Stylistically, the work belongs to the American eighteenth-century tradition of decorative sporting scenes, in which figures, horses, hounds, and waterfowl are arranged across an open landscape. The horizontal format and anecdotal subject matter are characteristic of the genre, while the oil medium allows for the layered handling of foliage, water, and atmospheric distance typical of the period.
History & Provenance
Hunting Scene with a Pond was created in 1750 by an American 18th-century artist, executed in oil on canvas. No details of a commission or early ownership history are recorded in the available sources.
The documented provenance begins with Ailsa Mellon Bruce (1901–1969) of New York. Following her death, the painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through her bequest in 1970, where it remains held by the institution.
Hunting Scene with a Pond is part of the National Gallery of Art's collection in Washington, D.C. It was acquired through the bequest of Ailsa Mellon Bruce in 1970. The work measures 65.8 cm in height and 127.4 cm in width.
The painting was exhibited in the "American Paintings: 1750-1900" exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in 1971.
Overview
The work is an oil on canvas depicting a bustling hunting tableau. In the lower foreground a pack of dogs races forward, trailed by several riders in traditional hunting dress, complete with hats and long coats. Beyond them, a sizable white house with a red roof stands beside a pond where ducks glide, all set under a warm, yellow‑toned sky dotted with scattered trees.
Subject & Meaning
The composition captures the vigor of a countryside hunt, emphasizing motion and the coordinated chase between dogs, riders, and waterfowl. The juxtaposition of the animated foreground with the tranquil pond suggests a narrative of pursuit and the interplay between human sport and natural environment.
Artist & collection
