"The York and Ainsty Hunt"

by Lionel Edwards

Gouttelette, Open Edition


Paper Size: 13 x 20 ins / 33 x 50 cm

Image Size: 13 x 20 ins / 33 x 50 cm

This is a wonderfully atmospheric hunting scene, painted by one of the twentieth centurys very finest sporting artists. Lionel Edwards was a phenomenally enthusiastic fox hunter, and this passion for the sport was crucial in his creation of the hugely evocative sporting pictures for which he became internationally renowned. The York and Ainsty Hunt was established in the early nineteenth century, hunting a large expanse of land in North Yorkshire. In 1906 the dog and bitch packs were separated; they were reunited in 1909, before being divided once again in 1929. Today the North and South sections of the York and Ainsty are entirely separate entities, uniting only for a combined point-to-point once annually. When this painting was executed, in 1927, the York and Ainsty remained a unified single body. At this point Lionel Edwards was enjoying ever-increasing fame, and he commuted to hunts all over the country from his home in Hampshire. He was extraordinarily productive, producing some outstanding artworks. None was more beautiful than this; Edwards dramatic wintry skies, of which this is a prime example, became celebrated far beyond the hunting world, even being immortalised in the work of Poet Laureate John Betjeman, who memorably wrote of being under a Lionel Edwards sky

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