Hunting Scene with a Pond

American 18th Century

National Gallery of Art

Twenty-one dogs run and eight pale-skinned men on horseback gallop from right to left across a grassy field in this horizontal landscape painting. Most of the dogs are white with tawny brown spots but a few are darker brown. At the back of the pack, some of the men raise riding crops over the brown, black, or white horses. The men wear tailcoats, shirts, riding pants, boots, and hats in shades of brown, blue, golden yellow, and black. A ninth man runs on foot, hat in hand as he gestures at something to our left. Another man chases after a rearing brown horse to our right beyond this group, and about a dozen waterfowl float in the oval lake in the near distance to our left. Further back, beige and tan houses with copper-colored roofs are enclosed by a fence. Plumes of dark smoke rise from the chimneys into the watery blue sky. An oversized brown rabbit sits to the left of the lake, out of scale with the rest of the picture. The overall tonality of the landscape is dark and murky, especially in the dark green of the lawn.