HIMLEY, S. after Dean WOLSTENHOLME

Set of Four Shooting Prints, [Plate 1] Shooting, Going Out, [Plate 2] Shooting, Game Found, [Plate 3] Shooting, Dogs brought the Game, and reloading, [Plate 4] Shooting, Refreshing.

circa 1820. Colour printed aquatints heightened with gum arabic. Printed on wove paper. In excellent condition with the exception of being trimmed within the platemark on the bottom margin. Four puncture holes on left margin where it was bound together. Plate 1, has some very minor foxing in margins. Image size: 9 3/4 x 12 5/8 inches. Sheet size: 12 5/8 x 15 3/4 inches.

A handsome set of four shooting prints aquatinted by S. Himley after paintings by the celebrated sporting artist Dean Wolstenholme.

Around 1820, S. Himley produced two sets of hunting aquatints after skilled paintings by Wolstenholme. These sets, expertly engraved in aquatint, were comprised of four plates illustrating shooting, and four plates depicting coursing. As with many of the prints after Wolstenholme's paintings it is difficult to decipher whether Himley's works reproduced paintings by Dean Wolstenhome Snr. or by his son Dean Wolstenholme Jnr. The Wolstenholme's were both talented sporting artists who earned a reputation as skilled animal painters. Both father and son exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and garnered countless commissions from eager enthusiasts. They specialized in fine hunting scenes and had a natural flare for depicting movement, which lends their work an animation and life, which is truly compelling. This stunning set of four shooting prints is rarely found as a complete set and is a wonderful example of English sporting art at its best.

Siltzer, The Story of British Sporting Prints 286-313, 364.

Item #15061

Price: $1,200.00