Oil on paper, 25.5 by 34.5 cm

Provenance: the artist’s studio sale, Christie’s 1886; bt.R.Woodhouse, 1886; Miss P.Tufnell; acquired by the present owners from the Maas Gallery in 2001

Literature: the Maas Gallery, British Pictures (1840-1960), 2000, cat.no.4

Cattle and in particular cattle droves were a common theme in Ansdell’s art from the late 1830s until his death. The present work is one of three preliminary oil sketches of cattle offered by the Maas Gallery in 2000 (see literature), all with provenance dating back to the artist’s 1886 studio sale. The catalogue relates at least one of these works to his celebrated Highland painting, The Drover’s Halt, Island of Mull in the Distance of 1845 (now in the collection of Royal Holloway College, London). Despite strong compositional similarities between that painting and this study, the Drover’s Halt appears to depict Long Horned Cattle rather than Highland Cattle (as in the present case).