Oil on canvas, 76.2cm by 104.1cm.
Signed c.l.: J. Ferneley/Melton Mowbray/1832.
The artist lived in Melton Mowbray, where modern fox hunting developed in the late 18th Century.
He specialised in painting hunting scenes and sporting horses and has come to be regarded as one of the great British equine artists.
His son John (1815-1862), who was taught to paint by his father, also became a sporting artist and it is thought that they sometimes collaborated.
Ferneley kept a detailed set of account books, one of which records a payment of 10 guineas by Lord Exeter in 1832.
Brownlow, 2nd Marquess of Exeter (1795-1867), was a noted, and successful, racehorse owner, who kept his own stud.
