A Hunting Scene - Taking a Brook

CHARLES DEAN WOLSTENHOLME

1798-1882

English School 

A Hunting Scene – Taking a Brook   

Oil on canvas, signed   

43.6 x 53.7 cms

17 x 21 inches

The son of the artist, Dean Wolstenholme, he was born at Waltham Abbey, Essex in 1798. At the age of 14 he was badly injured when a horse bit him, taking a piece out of his cheek.

He was greatly influenced by his father as a painter but Wolstenholme Jnr. also studied engraving as a young man. His painting style was almost identical to his father although his subject matter included genre works which were sometimes engraved, as were a few of his hunting scenes.

Some of his best pictures were of brewery horses including "Black Eagle Brewery" exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1822, "A View of the Hour Glass Brewery" and "Messrs. Barclay Perkins & Co's Brewery, Park Street, Southwark" all of which he subsequently engraved.

In addition to his horse paintings, Wolstenholme painted sporting scenes as well as dogs and other animals. He also painted a series of pictures of prize birds and a number were engraved life-size (14 are in the Print Room of the British Museum). He was particularly skilled at capturing the metallic sheen of their plumage.

Wolstenholme invented a form of colour printing later patented by Leighton Brothers.

The last twenty years of his life were spent at Highgate and the surrounding countryside provided much inspiration for his work during these years. Father and son's work can be hard to distinguish although the latter's depiction of horses is freer and his paintings are generally brighter and more alive than those of his father.

He exhibited 13 times at the Royal Academy from 1818-19, 10 at the British Institute and also at the Royal Society of British Artists.



Bibliography:

Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists - Sally Mitchell

A Dictionary of British Landscape Painters - Col M H Grant