The ‘Headless Hunter’ was initially the working title of the painting that is now named ‘the unsuccessful fox hunt’. I witnessed a foxhunt with horses and hounds in Pennsylvania and found it astonishing that this is still a thing… I am a conservationist and I really do not understand the need to hunt these beautiful creatures. I hope what they told me is true: that the fox is not caught 99% of the time and that those who do get caught usually are in poor health. More and more these events are also now done by dragging fox urine along a trail so that the dogs never find a real fox…
I took a lot of photographs of the event in Pennsylvania but never really got a shot with all of the dogs in it. So this painting has been assembled from many photographs. Which also meant that I could be creative with the face of the man of the horse…
The original head was not to my satisfaction, and I asked my website visitors for suggestions of another head. Not much came of it, so I created a face that was to my own liking. A somewhat grumpy male, frustrated with not ‘catching’ a fox on that day. Which happened in answer to my passionate prayers. At some point during the hunt I did see a fox, but it looked like it was mocking the horses and the dogs and it was never caught. Yes, there WAS in fact a real fox involved on this day…
The only things that touched my heart that day were the escape of the fox(es) and the way these dogs are living. They were not kept as pets – they were bred with such a strong urge to hunt (they were hound dogs, in case you are wondering), that they would not do well in the confines of a household. Just the ones who did not possess that special urge were offered to individual dog owners. I did not like seeing all of these dogs confined to kennels, but maybe I am just too soft-hearted…
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