A highly unusual and rare large painting of dogs

A wonderful large scale painting of dogs in a landscape, unusually composed in two parts, the upper half with a quantity of terriers and smaller breeds, the lower with larger varieties, twenty three in all.

J E Bourhill RSA

A recently rediscovered work by the artist

James Bourhill flourished in the years 1880-1900, and all the works known by him are dated in the 1880s and a few into the 1890s. He was an enigmatic artist of Scottish descent and worked by studying the animals in The Edinburgh Zoological Gardens and setting them in imaginary landscapes. Only a couple of paintings have humans in them. He was a Royal Scottish Academician and exhibited several paintings between 1880 and 1887. John Aspinall held a large collection at Aspinalls club, featuring great cats, great apes and other animals. The Hon. Aileen Plunkett at her renowned home Luttrellstown Castle outside Dublin had a collection of parrots, flamingoes, frogs, turtles, rabbits and pigeons.

Oil on canvas, in original frame (signed JE Bourhill)

English circa 1880  

With ALR certificate