WILLIAM RARRAUD 47 



interest had procured him an appointment — the 

 parent of large family feeling doubtless that it 

 was more important to secure for the boy a start 

 in life rather than allow him to depend for a 

 livelihood on the chance of succeeding as an 

 artist. That William Barraud's tastes were artistic 

 from the beginning is obvious, for he occupied 

 his stool in the Custom House only a short time, 

 and left it to study under Abraham Cooper, then 

 an Academician and enjoying the earlier years of 

 his fame as a painter of animals. Under such 

 guidance William Barraud's talents developed 

 very rapidly ; in his nineteenth year we find him 

 exhibiting for the first time in the Royal Academy, 

 and perhaps as a direct consequence receiving a 

 commission for the portrait of a dog. This was 

 given him in 1829 by Mr. John Turner, of 

 Clapham Common, a well-known coursing man 

 of the time, who commissioned him to paint 

 the likeness of a favourite greyhound named 

 Triumph. An engraving from this painting, 

 by J. Webb, appeared in vol. Ixxiii. of the 

 Sporting Magazine. Triumph is described as a 

 " red greyhound bitch " ; she won the Goblet at 

 Epsom in 1828, and divided the Hedley Stakes 

 with Mr. North's Lancer at Epsom in 1829. 



In the following year William Barraud's work 

 attracted the attention of the famous Master of 



