"No Fear Of The Hounds" Charles Burton Barber (1845-1894) (After)

"No Fear Of The Hounds"
After Charles Burton Barber, R.I. (1845-1894)
Engraved by William Henry Simmons (1811-1882)
Artist's proof signed in pencil by the artist and printmaker ('C.B. Barber. // WH Simmons')
Etching & mixed-method engraving on paper
Very large format, published by Fores in London
& Knoedler in New York, 1878

Measures:-
Image: 63.6 cm high x 80 cm wide (approx.)
Framed: 99 cm high x 128 cm wide (approx.)

Lettered above the image "London, Published July 10th,, 1878, by Mess.rs Fores, Proprietors, 41, Piccadilly Copyright registered Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1878 by M. Knoedler & Co. of New York in the Offices of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.'; below the image 'Copyright Registered'. Declared to the Printsellers' Association and with their blindstamp lower left.

Charles Burton Barber studied at the Royal Academy Schools and in due course came to be considered one of England’s finest genre painters, specialising particularly in the depiction of animals. He enjoyed Royal patronage and a number of his works were engraved. The picture here, which shows a fox and a vixen happily playing in the snow with their cub emerging from the woods beyond, is a charming image of one of Britain's most distinctive native mammal species. The print was made by William Henry Simmons who was a highly accomplished mixed-method engraver who had also transposed works by Sir Edwin Landseer.

Presented in an fine Victorian oak frame with a gilt inner slip.

Provenance:-
Private collection, Oxfordshire 

A extremely impressive and scarce very large format print, presented with broad margins in a very beautiful late-Victorian "country house billiard-room"  fashion.

Very few copies in institutional collections. The BM's version is trimmed close to the image and was only acquired by them in 2010 as part of the Lennox-Boyd collection. See BM 2010,7081.6679.