Mr. W. H. Davis, whose large “animal-piece” of last year, The Strayed Held, greatly surprised those who like ourselves had only previously seen the artist in small and elaborately-finished pictures, sends another large work, which, if less broad and rich in colour, and not likely to receive full justice because reminding somewhat of Rosa Bonheur, is, notwithstanding, scarcely less admirable. It represents a scene of Spring ploughing, under a showery sky, on the neighbouring French coast, near St. Etienne. where the artist lives and works, A team of five of the magnificent Normandy horses — broadchested, with grandly-arched neck and full crest— which are also frequently met with near Paris, and of which Rosa Bonheur made such good use in her Horse Fair, are seen just lashed into full action, dragging the plough up a hillock towards the foreground. In contrast to their docile strength, two unbroken foals gambol and curvet at the crack of the whip.
Bibliography
“Exhibition at the Royal Academy.” The Illustrated London News. 48 (12 May 1866): 474. Hathi Diigital Library Trust version of a copy in the University of Chicago Library. Web. 6 January 2016.
Created 7 January 2016