John Emms

Private Collection, United States

This condition report has been kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation Inc.: This work is unlined. The paint layer is stable, clean and varnished. There are a few tiny dots of retouching in the very loosely painted background on the right side and possibly a couple of other tiny spots in the darkest colors in the center. The work is in very good condition overall, and it should be hung in its current state.
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In 1864, when he was living in London, John Emms came to Lyndhurst in the New Forest to work with Lord Leighton on a fresco for St Michael and All Angels. In 1880 he married Fanny Primmer, the daughter of a Lyndhurst official, and in 1886 the couple settled in town, building an imposing house, The Firs, where Emms remained for the rest of his life.

Emms painted the New Forest Buckhounds and Foxhounds on numerous occasions. The size of the dogs in the present painting, and the set of steel and leather couples lying by the hunting whip on the red coat, suggest that they are Buckhounds. The couples were used for the "tufters", the small advance guard of hounds used to separate a fallow buck and set it running, before the main pack was brought out and laid on its scent.

The fluid, energetic style of the painting, which so brilliantly conveys the play of light on the hounds’ coats and the rough textures of the cheeky hunt terrier, indicates a date in the 1890s. In his mature work, Emms is more concerned with atmosphere, using a subdued palette which evokes the crepuscular light of the kennel and the companionable relaxation of the dogs.