拍品專文
One of a group of fifteen pictures commissioned from Baines by Dawnay between April 1872 and January 1874, the subjects including James Chapman's Zambezi expedition of 1861-64, animals, and Dawnay's own adventures in South Africa.
Dawnay, the fourth son of the seventh Viscount Downe, made several hunting expeditions to Africa. He left England for a shooting expedition in South East Africa in 1872, intending to hunt in Natal with John Dunn and move on to the Victoria Falls and the unexplored territory beyond: 'having heard that Baines the explorer was in town having just come from the Gold Fields, I went and called on him, and stayed a long time finding out all I could about the route to the Victoria Falls, etc. and finishing by getting him to promise to do nine or ten pictures of animals chiefly - Eland, Buffalo, etc., etc. - one of them to be a picture of my own adventure last time with a rhinoceros. As getting some of his pictures has been my great wish for two years now, I think myself very lucky to have met him.' (G. Dawnay, Private Journals, 6 vols., privately printed, I, pp. 21-22). The present picture is mentioned in Dawnay's final entry on Baines made on 31 January 1874: 'Baines has finished the two pictures he has been painting for me - a Koodoo and an Eland - and is going to do some more now, and I have given him some beautiful subjects' (ibid., 3, p. 206).
For a review of Baines' pictures for Dawnay see F.R. Bradlow, 'The private journals of Guy Dawnay', Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library, 48 (I), 1993, pp. 32-44. Thirteen of the fifteen pictures commissioned by Dawnay were subsequently sold by his heirs at Christie's (27 October 1982, lots 116-121, 29 May 1984, lots 93-98, 22 October 1991, lot 56).
The Dawnay commission came towards the end of Baines' career at a time when he was beset with debts from the failure of the South African Gold Fields Exploration Company and had reverted to the practice of painting on commission and lecturing to raise funds. For a survey of Baines' activities in Zimbabwe and Natal between 1868 and 1875 see J. Carruthers and M. Arnold, The Life and Work of Thomas Baines, Vlaeberg, 1995, pp. 66-75.
Dawnay, the fourth son of the seventh Viscount Downe, made several hunting expeditions to Africa. He left England for a shooting expedition in South East Africa in 1872, intending to hunt in Natal with John Dunn and move on to the Victoria Falls and the unexplored territory beyond: 'having heard that Baines the explorer was in town having just come from the Gold Fields, I went and called on him, and stayed a long time finding out all I could about the route to the Victoria Falls, etc. and finishing by getting him to promise to do nine or ten pictures of animals chiefly - Eland, Buffalo, etc., etc. - one of them to be a picture of my own adventure last time with a rhinoceros. As getting some of his pictures has been my great wish for two years now, I think myself very lucky to have met him.' (G. Dawnay, Private Journals, 6 vols., privately printed, I, pp. 21-22). The present picture is mentioned in Dawnay's final entry on Baines made on 31 January 1874: 'Baines has finished the two pictures he has been painting for me - a Koodoo and an Eland - and is going to do some more now, and I have given him some beautiful subjects' (ibid., 3, p. 206).
For a review of Baines' pictures for Dawnay see F.R. Bradlow, 'The private journals of Guy Dawnay', Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library, 48 (I), 1993, pp. 32-44. Thirteen of the fifteen pictures commissioned by Dawnay were subsequently sold by his heirs at Christie's (27 October 1982, lots 116-121, 29 May 1984, lots 93-98, 22 October 1991, lot 56).
The Dawnay commission came towards the end of Baines' career at a time when he was beset with debts from the failure of the South African Gold Fields Exploration Company and had reverted to the practice of painting on commission and lecturing to raise funds. For a survey of Baines' activities in Zimbabwe and Natal between 1868 and 1875 see J. Carruthers and M. Arnold, The Life and Work of Thomas Baines, Vlaeberg, 1995, pp. 66-75.