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Художник Thomas Blinks (1853-1910)
Thomas Blinks is best known for his hunting and racing scenes and dog pictures. Despite paternal opposition to his early interest in art, and a fruitless apprenticeship with a tailor, Blinks finally followed his artistic leanings. Although he received no formal training, his understanding of horse anatomy and action were learnt from observation at Tattersalls.
Blinks first exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1881, the Royal Society of British Artists in 1882, and regularly at the Royal Academy from 1883 to 1910. His paintings are much admired for his ability to combine accuracy of observation with freedom of brushwork and a polished finish. Blinks was particularly good at conveying the pose and psychology of sporting dogs at work. (continued on the bottom)
Thomas Blinks excelled at paintings of gundogs at work, with setters a particular favourite. Setters, like spaniels (hence the name) derive from a type of Spanish hunting dog which is documented as early as 1335. Early sporting writers describe them as ‘setting’ or ‘crouching’ spaniels, as opposed to ‘finding’ or ‘springing’ spaniels, which flushed game without pointing it. Dr John Caius, in his Treatise on English Dogs (1576) describes the characteristics of the setter: ‘Another sort of Dogges be there, serviceable for fowling, making no noise either with foote or with tounge, whiles they followe the game….When he approacheth neere to the place where the birde is, [the dog] layes him downe, and with a marcke of his pawes, betrayeth the place of the byrdes last abode’. As the setter crouched down, the hunter moved stealthily forward and threw a net over the birds.
In 1624 some working setters were sent to James I by Louis XIII, to be used in conjunction with falcons. The two most prominent English setter breeders of the early nineteenth century were Edward Laverack and RL Purcell Llewellin, from whose dogs most pedigree English setters descend. English setters were represented in the first recorded dog show in 1859 and at the first field trial in 1865. Irish setters, with their superb red coats, did not become popular in England until about 1880; they were prized for their endurance and speed.
The work of Thomas Blinks is represented in the Royal Collection; Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and Preston Manor, Brighton
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