This work depicting a couple of hounds in a summer landscape, is reflective of seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings showing animals stood up in parkland, for example ‘Foxhounds in a Landscape, 1762’ by Stubbs (below). However, unlike these more static and stylised works, this painting presents two hounds mid-movement. Regent, on the right-handside, is stood up well and looks complacent and docile. Remus however, on the left, is moving around, head up in the air and stern wagging. In this way, the painting creates a bridge between traditional sporting art, through its theme, style and technique, and contemporary art- showing not a perfected moment but a real one, of living animals in a fresh, open landscape.  

It is unusual to see hounds presented at this time of year. A foxhound is often limited in visual media to Autumn and Winter scenes, whilst the hunting season is in action. However, a hound’s working life continues throughout the summer months through breeding and showing. Since pedigree became of interest in the late Seventeenth century, Hounds have been shown as an attempt to present their good conformation, agility and temperament. In the same way that paintings were used to advertise hounds and horses for stud, and to show off the wealth of an individual through their expensive and well-bred animals, showing gave people the chance to assess hounds in person. These two hounds appear as though they have just been taken out of a puppy show and stood up for photographs, as happens at every pack throughout the country today, in one of the most important events of their calendar.