Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait 1819 - 1905

American Artists Association (gift from the artist)
Private Collection, New York (sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 11, 1950, lot 95, illustrated)
Newhouse Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1964

Warder H. Cadbury and Henry F. Marsh, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait: Artist in the Adirondacks, Cranbury, New Jersey, 1986, no. 52.10, p. 120, illustrated

This painting is in good condition. It is unlined, with light craquelure across the sky. Under UV: there is one three inch line of inpainting in the upper left corner, as well as scattered dots and dashes of inpainting, some to address cracking, in the sky. There is also one small area of inpainting above the hunter's shoulder.
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Born in 1819 near Liverpool, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait was a self-taught artist who developed his skills by studying instructional art books and the works of the English painters Sir Edwin Landseer and Richard Ansdell. In 1850, along with his wife Marian, Tait elected to leave England, travel to New York and try his hand as an independent artist. This move proved fortuitous, as Tait found a prospering city and a citizenry with a keen interest in recreational activities such as hunting. 

Tait completed Duck Shooting in 1852, two years after he and Marian emigrated from England. Along with several other early sporting paintings, it helped secure Tait's early success as a painter and established his reputation as one of the finest sporting painters in America. In 1851, two of his works were acquired by the American Art Union, one of the largest purchasers of American paintings at the time, and further cemented his reputation as a professional painter of exceptional merit.

Samuel P. Avery remarked that Tait "...loves nature and hunts her out, with gun and brush in hand...His eye is quick and correct; his view broad, and his hand, as an artist, accomplished and decided. His pictures are thoroughly American, and in his province he paints better altogether than any of his competitors in this region" ("Arthur F. Tait," Cosmopolitan Art Journal, vol. II, March and June 1858, p. 103).