Richard Ansdell, R.A. (British, 1815-1885)

Richard Ansdell first visited Spain in the company of John Phillip and the present work was the first of Ansdell's Royal Academy exhibits with a Spanish subject. As the Athenaeum commented: 'He has with extraordinary facility acquired his dramatic, vivid manner, his strong, deep Spanish colour, even his very way of looking at and choosing subjects. Mules drinking, Sevilla (no. 356) is excellently painted' (Athenaeum, no. 1543, 23 May 1857, p. 666).