Lot 159: Richard Whitford (British, d.1890) A prize cow in a landscape

A prize cow in a landscape
signed 'R. Whitford' (lower right)
oil on canvas
50.8 x 61cm (20 x 24in).

PROVENANCE :
The Third Earl of Powis and thence by descent.

In 1876, this animal won :-
first prize at the Bath and West of England Show, Hereford
first prize at the West Midland Show at Oswestry
second prize at the Smithfield Club, London
second prize at the Bingley Hall, Birmingham

Richard Whitford came from Worcestershire and began his career as a customs and excise officer but in 1848 he lost his job having been charged with the misappropriation of 5 shillings and 3 pence of duty paid by a tobacco dealer. He returned to his native Evesham, where his father had been a barber, and started painting, the earliest dated works being from 1855. Being based in the Cotswolds, the great sheep breeding area of England, many of his pictures are of sheep, although he also painted cattle, horses and pigs.
A large part of his clientele were the local gentry, whom he frequently included standing proudly beside their animals, although he had very few aristocratic patrons.
It is therefore rather surprising that he executed five commissions for Queen Victoria, although none of his pictures survive in the Royal Collection.
He seems to have travelled to the annual livestock shows all over the country and was a member of the Smithfield Club.
Presumably, the cattle shown in our pictures were bred on the home farm at Powis Castle and Whitford was commissioned to paint their portraits by the Third Earl.