H Murray (fl.1850 – 1860)

There is not a great deal of biographical knowledge known of this artist.  He is however, very well known and respected as through his lifetime he was quite prolific. He was obviously an artist of some social ability as he painted quite a number of hunts throughout the country.

He was a painter in the mediums of Oil, Watercolour and Gouache specialising in hunting subjects and coaching scenes, often with a humorous content.  Although his subjects were full of vitality, action and vigour, his sketching and draughtsmanship was of the highest quality.  He painted in subtle colours and his admiration of the horse and its various abilities was obvious from his keen sense of observation of their form, muscle and action.

He exhibited at the British Institution and at the Royal Society of British Artists during his lifetime but many of his paintings were for domestic homes and for private commission.  He very often used to paint in either pairs and sets of four and by the time he was painting, instead of the very stilted and stylised fashion of painting coaching and hunting subjects of his predecessors in the previous decades and century, he had developed a style which produced an extremely natural painting.  His works are very highly considered and highly sought after today.