BE 313
JOHN FERNELEY Snr
Thrussington 1782 - 1860 Melton Mowbray
Master John Marriott on a grey horse, with his sister Miss Marriott and their dogs at a cottage door
Signed and dated lower right: J.Ferneley / Melton Mowbray / 1832
Canvas: 30 ½ x 37 ½ in / 77.5 x 95.3 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, UK
Richard Green, London, 1988
Private collection, UK
Literature
Major Guy Paget, The Melton Mowbray of John Ferneley/The Account Books of John Ferneley, 1931, p.140, no.343 (‘T. Pain, Esq. 1832. Portrait of Miss and Master Marriott, Horse and Dogs. £21.0.0’)
This painting combines a superb portrait of a grey horse with an air of domestic charm unusual in Ferneley. He captures the affectionate relationship of Master John Marriott and his sister, and their youthful joy, shared by the dogs, at the prospect of a beautiful morning in the countryside. Attention is lavished on the roses round the cottage door and the charming details of Miss Marriott’s white dress, pink-trimmed bonnet and shawl.
The sitters were the children of George Marriott (1774-1848), the ‘Sporting Draper’ of Melton Mowbray and a larger-than-life, popular figure in the Quorn Hunt. Ferneley made several paintings of Marriott and his family between 1815 and 1849, including one of ‘Old George’ elegantly leaping a fence (1844; collection of the Earl of Kintore), Mrs Marriott and Mrs Marriott’s horse. Ferneley, a fellow Meltonian and keen rider to hounds, knew the Marriotts well. George, who came from an old yeoman family of Long Clawson, Leicestershire, was a prominent local businessman as well as an important figure in the Hunt; he was Townwarden in 1816. Despite being a ‘very heavy weight’, George was described by legendary huntsman Dick Christian as one of the ‘Blue Coats’: ‘such crashers, they’d hardly wait for hounds to get on the scent’. He bred many fine hunters.
JOHN FERNELEY Snr
Thrussington 1782 - 1860 Melton Mowbray
One of the most accomplished sporting artists of his day, John Ferneley Senior had a long and prolific career, and enjoyed considerable fame and fortune during his lifetime. Born at Thrussington in Leicestershire, the son of a wheelwright, Ferneley was first apprenticed to his father's trade. His artistic talent was soon recognised by the Duke of Rutland, who admired some of his pictures which adorned a cart on which his father was working.
In 1803, at the instigation of the Duke of Rutland, Ferneley was sent to London to study with the successful sporting painter Benjamin Marshall; he also enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1806 to 1853.
From 1804, he travelled extensively around England, visiting Dover (to paint the Leicestershire militia), Norfolk and Lincoln. In 1808 he went to Ireland, where he returned annually between 1810 and 1812, and painted many pictures for the Irish gentry.
Ferneley spent the rest of his life at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, where he built a studio and house named Elgin Lodge. His reputation earned him the patronage and friendship of many Meltonians and members of the aristocracy. He was patronised by some of the most fashionable figures of the day, including Beau Brummel and Count d’Orsay.