Hounds Throwing-Off

Hounds Throwing-Off is the third of four humorous prints which parody the popular genre of fox-hunting prints and provide a comic view of the perils and pratfalls of the chase. The series was etched by Gillray but designed by the amateur artist Brownlow North whose "signature" includes a compass pointing (appropriately) north.

For more information about the genre of fox-hunting paintings and prints, the amateur artist Brownlow North, and the reason why we find amusement rather than distress in images like this, see my commentary on Hounds Finding.

In this as in so many caricatures, a common phrase becomes literal. The fox (nowhere in sight) seems to have thrown off his pursuers with the result that the dogs have become confused and caused the horses to throw off their riders.

I haven't found a specific source for Gillray-North's image here, but there is a general debt to Bunbury who portrayed a variety of equestrian mishaps.

NEXT: Coming in at the Death

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Hounds Throwing-Off.
• "Brownlow North," Wikipedia
• "Fox hunting," Wikipedia
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #490
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times p. 272

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