Picture of the Week

Steph Burch has some wonderful images from several English foxhunts this season.  They show both the highs and lows of our sport or shall I say the dry and wet?

Duke of Beauforts Foxhounds 2022 Opening Meet. Photo by Steph Burch Photography.

It was the first hunt of the 2016 – 2017 season for the Tennessee Valley Hunt in East Tennessee.  I never saw this coyote come out of the corn. I had been listening to the hounds just ROAR around in that corn for an hour, when I saw this beautiful tweed coat against that landscape. I wanted to get photos of the coat with the Cumberland Mountains behind it, so I took a burst of about 5 photos. I never saw the coyote through the lens as I took the photographs of the coat.  Unbeknownst to me, the coyote had photo bombed the shot. 

During the weeks that the purpled mulberries fall, we see from one to three foxes―dog fox, vixen, and cub―together every evening, sharing summer’s bounty. Occasionally, a deer arrives, and they all share in harmony. The iPhone image was shot through a double-pane, vacuum-sealed picture window from about 50 yards.  /  Norm Fine photo

No, this is not a professional bridge-building crew on a typical workday. They’re Belle Meade foxhunters and family members, and they build, repair, and replace bridges in the Belle Meade hunting country on evenings and weekends.

Admittedly, they could be pros. After all, there are fifteen hunt-built bridges in the country. Each bridge has a name―they’re landmarks, after all―and staff members know the location of each and how to get there from wherever they happen to be.

Orange County Couple, Linda Volrath, oil on linen, 16 x 20 inches

This painting by Linda Volrath is part of an exhibition now hanging at Long Branch, a historic house and farm venue in Boyce, Virginia. Volrath’s sporting art and her husband Steven Parrish’s polished and light-hearted still life compositions will hang until the end of October.

Calling hunt historians for help identifying the individuals in this old photograph which may have been taken at the venerable Norfolk Hunt (est. 1895), west of Boston. The man in hunting attire is Henry Vaughan, MFH of the Norfolk from 1903 to 1933. In the early part of the twentieth century, Henry Vaughan was well-known up and down the Eastern seaboard as an ambassador for the growing sport of organized foxhunting in North America. He participated in the founding of the MFHA in 1907 and was elected the first secretary-treasurer of the fledgling organization. In 1918, he was named vice-chairman of the National Hunt and Steeplechase Association. Vaughan traveled extensively for both associations, judging hound shows and officiating at race meets. In 1931, he was elected president of the MFHA, a post he held until his death in 1938. I’m estimating that this photograph was taken no earlier than 1930. Vaughan would have been sixty-two years old in 1930. (I have a 1933 photo of him in the same hunting attire and appearing about the same age, if not younger.) A. Henry Higginson is supposedly in this photograph as well. Higginson would have been in his mid-fifties in 1930 and could even be about sixty in this photo. If anyone can identify Higginson and others in the picture, a great puzzle will be resolved! And we will publish what we learn and give credit accordingly. Reply through the Comments feature or by email. Posted May 28, 2021

“Airborne,” oil on linen by Linda Volrath, 12 x 16 inch

Pure exuberance is captured by Linda Volrath in this joyous oil painting of the beagle. Voodoo is a two-time stallion winner at the Bryn Mawr Hound Show (MD). Volrath is a highly respected animalist working from her studio in White Post, Virginia.

“This new painting portrays a veteran pack member of the Nantucket-Treweryn Beagles,” said Volrath. “He was fixated upon huntsman Russ Wagner, preparing to kennel up after an action-packed day in the field. Little did he know he was being my perfect model. Good boy!”

We’ve all heard of certain ladies who collect more shoes than they could possibly wear, but foxes? In a Berlin suburb in Germany recently, according to the BBC and Deutsche Welle, footwear was disappearing from homeowners’ yards—sometimes a single shoe, sometimes the pair. Residents were on alert to determine the culprit. It was a fox, caught on camera with a pair of blue flip flops in its mouth, stealing quietly across the cobblestones. Christian Meyer, the photographer, discovered the stash of more than 100 shoes: slippers, sandals, running shoes…. But Meyer’s missing shoes were not among them. Which goes to prove that even animals won’t keep all their eggs in one basket. Posted August 10, 2020 The story was brought to us by our Minneapolis correspondent, Karin Winegar.

Foxhounds in a Kennel, Christine Merrill (American, Contemporary), oil on canvas, 42 x 60 inches, framed: 49 ½ x 67 ½ inches, contact gallery for more information.

This painting of foxhounds in kennel, almost monumental in scale, caught our eye. Offered by William Secord Gallery in New York City, the composition by a contemporary artist is reminiscent of many we’ve seen by traditionalists such as John Emms (1843−1912) in particular, but the execution veers dramatically from the style of the traditional Masters. We are also reminded of Emms’s work in the very scale of the framed painting: 49-1/2 x 67-1/2 inches; Emms often worked in this large format.

Ladies, if you’ve been at a loss as to where to find a silk hunting veil for your side saddle habit, Foxhunting Life has solved your problem with the help of Daphne Wood, MFH, Live Oak Hounds (FL), who has sent us this image with her highest recommendation for fit, wear, and quality. And such a good deal! Posted May 11, 2020