194 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



works from his easel ; he contributed his first 

 pictures in 1786, sending then the "Portrait of a 

 Horse belonging to His Majesty," and the portrait 

 of "A Foxhound in the Possession of Colonel 

 Thornton." His contributions to the Royal 

 Academy were not numerous by comparison with 

 the number of his works, nor did he exhibit with 

 any great regularity ; between 1 786 and 1 807, when 

 he died, he sent in thirty-six pictures. He was 

 elected an Associate in 1795, and an Academician 

 two years later : he deposited as his Diploma 

 work " Horses in a Storm " ; horses in various 

 attitudes of terror grouped round a leafless tree 

 as if seeking shelter from the heavy storm and 

 lightning approaching from the right distance. 



Colonel Thornton, whose name occurs in con- 

 nection with one of the artist's first Royal Academy 

 works, was his friend and patron, and it was for 

 Colonel Thornton that Sawrey Gilpin painted one 

 of his best sporting pictures, "The Death of the 

 Fox," exhibited at the Academy in 1793. The 

 incident portrayed occurred one day when Gilpin 

 was hunting with the Colonel's pack ; and the 

 picture received perhaps more general approbation 

 than any from his brush. The art critic of the 

 Sporting Magazine (vol. 11) writes as follows: — 

 "The public has long been indebted to Mr. Gilpin 

 for his valuable exertions which have greatly con- 



