'Ride' Hog Hunting - Watercolour

A sepia watercolour on paper showing three moustached Europeans before they go Pig Sticking.

All three men are mounted and carrying bamboo pig sticking spears with the faint outlines of some natives in the background. This picture stands out from the rest for being painted in sepia. Aside from this and the differing date of 1880, you might think it made up a set of four pictures with the individually framed watercolours The Find, First Spear and The Kill. The back of the mount has newspaper cuttings from The New Empire dated 'March 17 1923' used to fix it.

The horses in the painting are particularly well done, showing their movement but other parts such as the upper bodies and faces lack the same detail. Dated 1880.

Framed size is given.

One of a group of amateur watercolours showing the English in India at Field Sports and on a Line of March. Some of the paintings have been done with a quick hand to capture the moment whilst others are a little more considered. For instance, many of the Europeans are wearing Pith Helmets but they are drawn so quickly that their true shape is not shown. Three small pictures of Pig Sticking, framed together, are dated 1877 and others are dated 1880 and 1881.

They all look to have been framed at a later date, with evidence to the back of one dating the framing to 1923. Before they were framed, it can be seen that most had been folded and some have damage to the paper edges etc. It seems that nearly 50 years after they were painted, the paintings were reconsidered and framed, perhaps by a relative. Watercolour sketches that were done for amusement or as a memory were re-evaluated and seen with a different eye. They are evocative of an age gone by and interesting to us as some show furniture being transported.