Thomas Butler

PORTRAIT OF A HUNTER BY THOMAS BUTLER

London 1755

Measurements: Inc. Frame: Height 47” (119.5cm) Width 57” (145cm)

Without Frame: Height 40” (101.5cm) Width 50” (127cm)

Oil on canvas.

Inscribed lower left, ‘TOM / A Hunter of  / Barth; Rich: / Baraby’s esq. / Taken from the / Life and Painted at The Butlers Pall Mall London 1755.’

This portrait depicts Bartholomew Richard Barneby’s favourite hunter, Tom. Bartholomew Barneby was appointed high sheriff of Herefordshire in 1739. Barneby was a wealthy landowner and avid hunter, residing at Brockhampton Park.

Thomas Butler was chiefly a businessman much like many contemporary artists. The spirit of Butler’s entrepreneurship is captured in one of his company advertisements stating that he and his assistants would paint ‘Horses, dogs, living and dead game, views of hunting in order to compose sporting pieces for curious furniture in a more elegant and newer taste than has been yet’.