Richard Ansdell
(1815-1885)
Richard Ansdell was an English oil painter of animals and genre scenes. He was born in Liverpool in 1815 to parents Thomas Griffiths Ansdell and Anne Jackson. His father died very young and Richard was educated at the Bluecoat school for orphans. He had a natural talent for art from an early age, and after leaving school worked for a portrait painter in Chatham.
He first exhibited at the Liverpool Academy in 1835, becoming a student there the following year. His animal and rural subjects proved to be extremely popular and he soon attracted very wealthy patrons. In 1840 he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy with two paintings called Grouse Shooting and another entitled, A Galloway Farm, he continued to exhibt there yearly until his death in 1849 (149 canvases in all)
This picture was on loan to the museum and art gallery at the Civic Center, Bolton (P.I. 1927)