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Dimensions: 24 1/2 by 29 1/2 in.; 62.2 by 74.9cm.

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Provenance: THE PROPERTY OF A NOBLEMAN

Commissioned by Thomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1753-1824), The Grove, Watford;
Thence by descent to George Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, February 13, 1920, lot 99, for 70gns to Knoedler.

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Literature: J. Egerton, The Paul Mellon Collection: British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867, New Haven, 1987, p. 100.

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Notes: Thomas Villiers (see Provenance below) was the eldest son of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon and his wife Charlotte, daughter of William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex.

Lord Clarendon was an avid patron and he owned at least ten paintings by Stubbs including the famous Park Scene at The Grove (also known by the title Freeman, The Earl of Clarendon's Gamekeeper with a Dying Doe and a Hound) exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801 (Paul Mellon Collection: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven) as well as Portrait of a Mare, the Property of the Earl of Clarendon, Royal Academy 1801, and Portrait of an Indian Bull in the Possession of the Earl of Clarendon, Royal Academy 1802.