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Artist: Nathaniel Hone RHA (1831-1917) Title: Cattle Grazing Medium: oil on canvas board Size: 25 x 30cm (9.8 x 11.8in) Framed Size: 44 x 49cm (17.3 x 19.3in) Provenance: Christie's London, 15th July 2015, Lot 121; Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} A lively work by Nathaniel Hone Ireland's finest landscape painter of the early twentieth century, this Impressionist sketch depicts green trees surrounding a sunlit field, in which cattle graze. Cumulus clouds, filling the sky, hint at imminent rain. In the left foreground, dark leaves are silhoue... Read more A lively work by Nathaniel Hone Ireland's finest landscape painter of the early twentieth century, this Impressionist sketch depicts green trees surrounding a sunlit field, in which cattle graze. Cumulus clouds, filling the sky, hint at imminent rain. In the left foreground, dark leaves are silhouetted against the clouds, with foliage and sky rendered swiftly in brushstrokes of dark green, grey and white. Most of Hone's landscapes and seascapes were painted around his home at St. Dulough's, Malahide, and depict calm weather, with cattle or sheep grazing contentedly in the rich pastureland. Born in Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, Hone was a descendant of the brother of the eighteenth-century painter Nathaniel Hone the Elder. After working for a period for the Midland Great Western railway company, of which his father was a director, he decided in 1853 to take up art. He spent two years in Paris, studying under history painters Adolphe Yvon and Thomas Couture before moving to Barbizon where he began to paint landscapes. At Fontainebleau, he was an active member of the group of artists that included (at various times) Rousseau, Manet and Henri Harpignies, with whom he was particularly friendly. In the late 1960's Hone exhibited both at the Royal Academy and at the Salons in Paris. In the early 1870's he returned to Ireland, to his family's estate at Malahide, where, apart from annual trips to the West of Ireland, he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He was elected a member of the RHA in 1880, and became professor of painting at the Academy in 1894. Peter Murray, October 2020