The Rabbit Hunters

Game dogs were among the favorite themes of Hinckley, one of the earliest animal painters in this country. The artist exhibited frequently at the American Art-Union, showing works that often included his favorite yellow terrier, Billy, seen here in the left foreground. The same dog appears in "The Rats amongst the Barley Sheaves" (1982.444). In January 1853, Hinckley sent an account of Billy to Smith Thompson Van Buren of Kinderhook, New York, who had purchased the work through the Art-Union the previous year. He described the dog, although dead by that time, as a skilled, ferocious hunter and a superb watchdog. In addition to the sense of anticipation created by the crouching animals, who await the flushing of the rabbit, the artist has included a still-life composed of the dead game and the hunter's gun. The somewhat awkward composition was improved upon in a later version of the same scene, "Flushing Wild Game," painted in 1868. The landscape may have been taken from sketches made in the vicinity of Milton, Massachusetts.