THE WINTER CHATSWORTH FINE ART & ANTIQUE SALE December 3rd & 4th, 2025

96 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 “The Kildare Hunt (1858),”O.O.C., Signed and dated 1858, approx. 203cms x 335cms (80” x 132”); together with the printed key (faded). (2) The Kildare Hunt is a large group portrait depicting one of Ireland’s most famous fox hunting clubs, at a “lawn meet” outside Bishopscourt House, near Straffan in Co. Kildare. The Bishopcourt Hunt was a precurser of the Kildare Hunt, and many of its members and their descendants were members of the Kildare. Built in 1792 for John Ponsonby, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, Bishopscourt was later sold to John Henry Scott, 3rd Earl of Clonmell, who in 1852 was appointed master of the Kildare Hunt. Five years later he was succeeded by Richard Bourke, Lord Naas (later 6th Earl of Mayo), who, it can be conjectured, commissioned Michael Angelo Hayes to paint this large canvas commemorating his predecessor’s tenure. In composition not unlike Daniel Maclise’s Meeting of Wellington and Blucher at Waterloo, painted two years later, Hayes’s portrait features twenty-eight men, mounted, or standing. Most wear red hunting jackets, while a few are dressed in dark coats and top hats. There are eighteen hunters in the group, mostly chestnut brown, with a few greys. In the distance, in front of the house, is another rider, and two people standing. Milling in and around the horses and riders are the hounds, many of which had been drawn from the Belvoir Hunt. With its stables, kennels, coverts and staff, the expense of maintaining the Kildare was considerable. The provision of coverts, areas where foxes were protected, also involved expense, as it put acres of land out of agricultural use. When the portrait was commissioned, Richard Bourke was Chief Secretary of Ireland and so did not have to look far for an artist capable of handling such a project, as Hayes was official painter to the Lord Lieutenant. The decision to commission the painting may have been strategic. A succession of hard winters had destroyed many coverts, and the club was in debt. At a meeting held in May 1857, it was found that expenditure for the coming season would be roughly double the amount raised by subscriptions. Assisted by Baron de Robeck, Robert Kennedy and Stephen Goodall, Mayo used his organizational skills to put the Kildare Hunt onto a solid footing. It can be conjectured that the commission was part of a strategy to ensure that member s would keep up to date with their subscriptions, while also acknowledging those who had provided coverts at their own expense. Among those depicted in the group, the Earl of Clonmell, mounted on a white horse and wearing a red jacket, is the most outstanding figure. He is looking back at William Kennedy, who is distinguished by long sideburns. Horace Rochford is standing, holding the reins of Lord Naas’s mount, while Lord Cloncurry, dressed in a coat and top hat, looks on. The Marquis of Drogheda is in the foreground, wearing a black jacket and holding a riding crop. His reins are held by the Baron of Robeck, who is standing. Other depicted in the portrait include Henry Caldwell, Thomas Conolly, John Hamilton, J. Wakefield, Lord St. Lawrence, Captain Colthurst, Captain Sheddes, Gerald Aylmer, Sir John Power and P. Tynte. Born in Waterford in 1820, Michael Angelo Hayes was given his first lessons in art by his father Edward Hayes (1797-1864), a portrait and equestrian painter. Around 1831, the family moved to Dublin, and having begun to exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy, aged seventeen, Hayes went on to specialise in equestrian and military subjects. He is perhaps best known for his illustrations Car Travelling in the South of Ireland in the Year 1856, which were published as aquatint prints by Ackerman; these followed the success of his Car Driving in the South of Ireland, published in 1836. He painted many scenes of horse racing and hunting, including The Race for the Corinthian Cup at Punchestown (1854). In 1842 he was appointed “Military Painter- in-ordinary” to the Lord Lieutenant, and painted a watercolour of troops parading at Dublin Castle. He also depicted the Yorkshire Hussars in 1840, and The Charge of the 3rd King’s Own Light Dragoons at Moodkee, an engagement in 1845 during the First Sikh War. In 1846 he painted 16th Lancers Breaking the Square at Aliwal and nine years later, The Heavy Cavalry Charge at Balaclava. Hayes’s paintings were based on direct observation and he made a detailed study of equestrian anatomy, writing a paper in 1876 entitled The Delineation of Animals in Rapid Motion. He also painted early animations, called ‘phenakistoscopes’ of people dancing. In the late 1840’s Hayes was in London, where he became an Associate Member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colour. However most of his career was spent in Dublin; he became a member of the RHA in 1854, and was elected Secretary two years later, when George Petrie was President. The two men quarrelled, and during the years following the Academy’s activities were marred by bitter disputes. In 1868 Hayes painted a group portrait The Installation of the Prince of Wales as Knight of St. Patrick. Many of his works were published as prints, including a series illustrating the ballad “Savourneen Deelish”. Dr. Peter Murray 2025 €40,000 - €60,000 875. Michael Angelo Hayes, RHA (1820-1877)